


A Slave... Or A Pet

by NakedOwlMan



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alien Sex, Bestiality, Blow Jobs, Felching, Humiliation, Knotting, Multi, Rape, Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-28
Updated: 2013-04-21
Packaged: 2017-11-27 05:51:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 27
Words: 86,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/658656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NakedOwlMan/pseuds/NakedOwlMan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After failing to defeat the Shadow Broker, Shepard, Liara, and Miranda are forced into captivity, and the Shadow Broker begins turning them into his sexual slaves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Defeat and Degradation

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fill for a prompt on the Mass Effect Kink Meme. Original prompt at http://masseffectkink.livejournal.com/5736.html?thread=25208168t25208168

It wasn't supposed to happen like this.  
  
Liara gasped, feeling her side where one of the Shadow Broker's shots had penetrated her armor. She only had one heatsink left, and she imagined Shepard was running low, also.  
  
The fearsome yahg let out a roar of anger as it charged toward Liara. Too slow, she tried to dodge out of the way, but she soon felt three powerful fingers close around her throat.  
  
"No!" Anna Shepard cried out, as the Shadow Broker turned to dangle Liara helplessly in front of her.  
  
"You have lost, Shepard," the yahg said in his deep, intimidating voice. "Drop your weapon now, or I'll break this weakling's neck and you can watch her die."  
  
"Don't..." Liara struggled for breath, her fingers clawing fruitlessly at the yahg's tough skin. "Don't do it, Shepard! He'll just kill us all anyway! Just keep fighting..."  
  
For a second, Liara hoped that Shepard would keep up the fight. But the hardened human commander tossed down her weapon, scowling up at the Broker with defeat in her eyes. "Fine. Just don't hurt her."  
  
"The Normandy," the Broker said. "If you value your companion's life, send it away, out of the system."  
  
Liara tried to shake her head, only to feel the hideous alien's firm grip tighten again.  
  
"Joker," Shepard said as she opened up a comm link to the Normandy. "We... we've won. The Shadow Broker is dead."  
  
"Nice work, Commander," said Joker's voice over the comm link. "I'll send a shuttle over to pick you up."  
  
Shepard winced, her eyes fearfully locked on Liara as she struggled to keep her voice steady. "No, Joker. Liara and I... we want to take some time to catch up. Why don't you take the Normandy back to the Osun system, get us resupplied. We'll be here when you get back."  
  
"Roger that, Commander. You two lovebirds have fun," he genially finished the call.  
  
Shepard hung her head. "The Normandy's gone. Now please, just- GAH!"  
  
"No!" Liara cried out as Shepard jolted and fell. Behind her, an info drone hovered.  
  
"The intruder has been pacified," the glowing orb helpfully informed its master. "Do you need assistance with anything else?"  
  
"This location has been compromised. Set a course for Site 2, maximum speed. By the time the Normandy returns, we will be long gone from this place," the Shadow Broker intoned, as his grip tightened around Liara's neck, cutting off her windpipe. "And no, Dr. T'Soni. I am not going to kill all of you. You deserve a far worse fate than oblivion. Enjoy your unconsciousness while it lasts. The world you wake up to will be much more painful."  
  
Liara felt herself blacking out, and the last thing she felt before everything went dark was being tossed to the floor.  
  
* * *  
  
When she awoke, the first thing she felt was cool air across her skin. She opened her eyes to find herself staring at a cold metal security door, secured tightly.  
  
"Hey, are you okay?" said Shepard's voice, and the sound of it soothed Liara's nerves, just a little. Shepard was alive.  
  
When she rolled over to face the Commander, she saw that Shepard's armor and clothing had been stripped off her. While Liara was no stranger to the enticing curves and faded scars of Shepard's naked body, to see her in a state like this in their current circumstances felt obscene to her.  
  
Looking down, Liara saw that she had been subjected to the same debasement. But then she noticed the feeling of cold steel against her skin. Reaching up a hand, she felt a heavy ring around her neck. Looking back up at Shepard, she saw that some sort of electronic collar was around the Commander's neck, also.  
  
"We've got to find a way out of here," said a voice behind Liara. Rising up to a sitting position, she turned to see Miranda Lawson, recovered from the attack that had knocked her unconscious just before their failed struggle with the Shadow Broker. Liara quickly averted her eyes, but not before seeing that Miranda was in a similar state as the other two women: naked, except for an electronic collar around her neck.

Getting a look at her surroundings, Liara saw that they were being held in an empty room, probably about 15 by 15 feet.  Most likely some sort of storage area that had been converted into an impromptu cell.  There was no furniture at all, simply bare walls, and all of them were forced to sit on the bare metal floor.  
  
"If you are all awake," said a familiar, chilling voice, and Liara turned to see a vidscreen switch on, showing the Shadow Broker's hideous face. "Allow me to explain your current circumstances."

"Those collars around your neck are filled with enough explosives to remove your heads completely from your bodies. I know that, the noble types that you are, threatening you with death for any resistance would be pointless, so the rules are as follows: you will follow any command that I or one of my associates gives you from this point forward. You will not resist, you will not hesitate, and you will not speak in my presence unless told to speak. If you break any of these rules, I will detonate the collars of one of your companions. If you resist again, the other will die. A third time, and none of you will live to resist further."  
  
The Shadow Broker continued his pronouncements. "If you are thinking of escape, allow me to explain why such thoughts are futile. There is no key to the collars around your neck. You will wear them until you die, one way or the other. Any attempts to cut the collars will cause them to detonate. If you move outside of the designated radius of my ship, they will detonate. There is no way to escape me."  
  
Liara started to speak, to question what the Broker was going to do to them, but then remembered his words about not speaking without permission. She hated it, but she had to play by his rules, or one of her friends would pay the price.  
  
"Commander Shepard," said the Broker, as the door to the cell slid open, and the info drone from before hovered inside. "You will follow Glyph. If you deviate from your course, or if anyone else exits the cell, then one of you will pay the price."  
  
Numbly, Shepard rose to her feet, and walked behind the glowing orb as it led her to the right and out of the cell. As soon as she was out of sight, the door slid shut again.  
  
Liara fought the urge to weep. This was all her fault. She had led Shepard into this. In trying to save one of her friends, she had doomed them all. What had the Broker done with Feron, she wondered, even though she already knew the answer. "Feron has served his purpose: the bait in the Broker's trap. Most likely he's already been disposed of."  
  
Miranda moved forward as Liara began to sob. "Hey, don't worry," the dark-haired human consoled her. "Shepard's going to get us out of here."  
  
"But how?" Liara choked out. "We have no weapons, no way to call for help. We have our biotics, but that wouldn't be enough to take down that thing. There's no escape for us."  
  
"The Normandy will find us," Miranda said as she wrapped her arms around the weeping asari. "Or Shepard will come up with some sort of plan. You've got to trust that everything's going to be alright."  
  
"Hope," said the Broker's voice, and Liara realized that he'd been listening to them this whole time. "I can assure you that such emotions will not trouble you very soon." On the screen, Liara saw that Shepard had followed the info drone back to the Broker's office. "Now then, Dr. T'Soni. I will show you what your futile resistance has earned you... and the ones you love."  
  
The camera zoomed out as the Broker stood from his desk. Liara felt her breath catch in her throat, her skin going cold as she saw the massive alien begin to unfasten its clothing. Shepard obviously knew what was coming, and despite all her attempts to put on a courageous face, Liara knew enough about her lover to see the fear in her eyes, even through a vidscreen.  
  
Before long, the massive yahg was naked. As its massive, slimy tongue lolled out of its mouth, Liara watched in disgust as the beast's giant phallus emerged from its crotch. Liara hadn't studied the yahg extensively, but she knew enough about their biology to have learned about their large, retractable penises. She never would have thought to have seen one in person like this, and certainly not about to be used on the woman she loved.  
  
Standing in front of Shepard, the Broker presented his huge cock, dripping with no-doubt foul smelling fluids. "On your knees, Shepard," the Broker intoned. "Service me, or I promise you that your friends will die."

Liara wanted to vomit as she saw Shepard slowly lower herself to the floor. Shepard fought to keep from gagging as she extended her tongue to lap at the veiny, throbbing organ in front of her. The disgust on her face was plain, but she continued to kiss and lick at the grotesque beast's cock.  
  
"No," Liara moaned, silently trying to will Shepard into resisting. Figuring out some way, any way to fight back. She didn't care about her own life anymore at this point; death would be preferable to watching the woman she loved be used like this.  
  
"Your attempts are inadequate, Shepard," the Shadow Broker sternly informed her. "Please try harder, for the sake of your companion, and your lover."  
  
Reaching up, Shepard began stroking her hands up and down the yahg's shaft, her fingers barely managing to reach around half of its girth. While she feverisly stroked, she also doubled her efforts at licking the alien's cock. Her eyes were wide and desperate, filled with fear for the other two women back in the cell.  
  
"Rrrrrr... rrraagh!" the Shadow Broker finally let out a groan after what seemed like hours, and Shepard was struck in the face with a massive spurt of foul yellow semen. Shepard lost her grip on the Broker's cock as it jerked and sprayed her with the beast's rancid seed. By the time it was done, Shepard's face and breasts were covered in the Broker's cum.  
  
"A barely satisfactory effort, Shepard," the Shadow Broker said, as he grabbed the base of his cock and wiped the tip of it across Shepard's lips, Shepard struggling not to vomit as the last drops of the Broker's load were forced into her mouth. "Glyph will lead you to a place to clean yourself, and then back to your cell. Be ready for when I call for your services again; I cannot promise it will be as painless as this encounter was."  
  
Her whole body shaking, whether in rage or disgust Liara wasn't sure, Shepard rose to her feet and followed the info drone out of the range of the camera, a trail of yellow cum dripping behind her as she went.  
  
"She'll find a way," Miranda said again, but the hope that had been in her voice before was dampened. "Shepard will find us a way out of here."


	2. Minions of the Shadow Broker

A few minutes later, the cell door opened again. Shepard, still damp from being cleaned, entered and sat down against the wall, her eyes cast down at the floor.   
  
Liara watched her from across the cell, wanting so much to go over to her. Hold her and hope she could take some comfort in the fact that they were still alive, and still together.  
  
But how could she do that? How could she, when the whole reason they were in this hellish situation was entirely because of her own foolishness? So instead, she simply sat on her side of the cell and watched Shepard, who continued staring at the floor as the hours ticked by agonizingly slowly.  
  
She had no idea how much time had passed when the cell door slid open again. Liara saw Shepard flinch and shudder, before starting to rise to her feet as the floating info drone hovered into the bare cell.  
  
But Shepard froze when the info drone spoke. "Miss Lawson," it said. "You are to accompany me to your first training session."  
  
Miranda's eyes turned steely as she rose to her feet. Liara could see the determination there, the desire not to let their captor see her afraid. The dark-haired woman glanced at her two fellow captives before walking after the drone, managing to look confident and powerful despite being completely naked.  
  
Liara wished she could summon that kind of strength. Right now, all she could feel was terror. Not at the thought of her own death, or whatever sick tortures the Broker had in mind for her, but at the idea of watching the woman she loved more than life itself be tortured, violated, and ultimately killed.  
  
"It's going to end that way eventually," Liara thought bleakly to herself. "Eventually, the Broker will tire of us. And Goddess, I know he'll make me watch. He'll kill Miranda and Shep..."  
  
Liara cursed herself for a weakling, even as she felt the tears start to come again. The sound of her sobbing finally brought Shepard's eyes up from the floor.  
  
"Liara, come here," Shepard's voice was low, but still filled with the strength she remembered. It had been that voice she had heard hovering in a Prothean containment field years ago, and a voice that had soothed her in desperate times such as these.  
  
She wanted to shake her head, wanted to tell Shepard that she didn't deserve to be close to her. But when Shepard beckoned her again, she finally moved over to Shepard's side.  
  
Leaning in close, Shepard spoke low into her ear. "I don't want him to hear us. Don't want to give him the sick thrill of listening in." She paused, then took a shuddering breath. "Liara, I'm so sorry. If I'd fought a little harder..."  
  
"No, Shepard," Liara whispered, raising a hand to stroke at her lover's freckled cheek. "You don't have to take responsibility here. I know that this is my fault. I just wish..."  
  
"It's okay," Shepard's hand reached up to brush at her damp cheeks. "Don't give up hope yet. The Illusive Man was able to track down information on the Shadow Broker before. Maybe he'll be able to find him again."  
  
Her words were filled with encouragement, but neither of them believed it. Shepard's last meeting with the Illusive Man was after she had blown up the Collector base he'd been eager to plunder for technology. Liara remembered laughing as Shepard had related the story: how she'd told the Illusive Man they were doing things her way from now on, whether he liked it or not. Seeing that confidence in her then, that power, Liara would have stripped Shepard's uniform off and melded with her right then if Joker hadn't come over the intercom to announce their arrival at Hagalaz.  
  
Joker. The thought of the wisecracking pilot made her other friends come to mind. Friends she would likely never see again. Her grief was only interrupted by the sound of the video display in the cell clicking on.  
  
Liara didn't want to look, but her morbid curiosity got the better of her. She turned, expecting to see the hideous yahg stripping out of his clothing again.  
  
But the camera was showing a different room. Miranda stepped cautiously into a mostly bare room. The most notable feature was a bare metal table positioned in the center of the room.

"Your pathetic attempt at overthrowing me ended up being quite an annoyance, Dr. T'Soni," said the Broker's voice over the cell's intercom. "All of my most skilled associates were stationed on this ship, and you slaughtered them to a man. As I told you before your defeat, they were replaceable. But, in order to ensure their full loyalty to me, I had to offer certain... incentives for their service."  
  
And as the door to the room Miranda was in slid open, Liara let out a moan of anguish. "Oh... Goddess, no..."  
  
Into the room stepped eight scarred, dangerous looking individuals. Miranda stared at them, her courageous facade slipping just a little. Five grinning humans arranged themselves around Miranda, along with a batarian, a turian, and a dark-skinned asari.   
  
"Miss Lawson, if you would," the Broker instructed Miranda over the intercom. "Please place your hands on the table, and remain in that position until my new associates have finished."  
  
"Finished" with what, nobody had to ask.   
  
For a brief moment, Miranda did nothing, standing and staring back at the eager mercenaries with cold eyes. Everything was still, and Liara wasn't sure if she wanted Miranda to comply... or to resist, just to free one of them from the torments that were sure to come.  
  
She felt Shepard pull her close, pressing the side of her head against Liara's. She thought it a token of affection at first, but then Liara realized what Shepard was doing and felt a stab to the heart.  
  
"He'll kill Shepard first," Liara thought to herself, "because he wants to keep me alive as long as possible. But if the two of us are close together when the collar detonates..."  
  
Inhaling deeply, Liara pressed herself close to Shepard and prepared herself for whatever was to come.  
  
"Miss Lawson, I have already explained the terms of your survival, and the survival of your comrades," the Broker spoke over the intercom after several tense seconds. "I will not ask again."  
  
Still, there was one more second of hesitation. But just when Liara was sure that the Broker would inflict his punishment, Miranda turned her back to the mercenaries and bent over, pressing her palms against the table and spreading her legs apart.  
  
The Broker's men let out wicked laughs, and one of the men stepped forward and started undoing his pants. "No doubt they already worked out beforehand who would get the rape privileges first," Liara bitterly thought to herself. She wanted to look away from the screen, but part of her felt like she needed to witness this. She doubted the pain of watching what Miranda was about to go through would amount to even a fraction of what Miranda herself was about to experience, but she didn't want Shepard's comrade to suffer alone.  
  
As the first man roughly penetrated her, Miranda gritted her teeth, her pained eyes locked on the far side of the room. Liara could see her try to will herself away from this situation, go somewhere deep in her mind and escape. But as the dirty human merc reached around to roughly grope at her breasts, Miranda let out an anguished moan, each violent thrust by the first of her many rapists bringing her back to reality.  
  
Liara sighed in relief as the man behind Miranda let out a groan and pulled away after several minutes. But as the rest of the group mocked him for his lack of staying power, and a bald-headed human with an eyepatch moved to replace the first man, Liara knew that Miranda's tortures were far from over.  
  
She had no way of knowing how long the second man fucked Miranda before letting out a triumphant shout and shooting his load inside her. But the third man, a younger-looking human with a dyed-green mohawk, wasted no time in grabbing Miranda's hips and slamming his full length into her with a grin.  
  
Any trace of Miranda's former resolve to stay strong was gone, and with every thrust she let a pained cry. Her agony seemed to only amuse the crowd of cheering rapists even more, and they cheered as their comrade signaled his climax.  
  
Liara felt her stomach roil in disgust when the third man pulled out. By now, Miranda's insides were filled with the cum of her abusers, and semen began to splatter onto the floor from between her legs.

The fourth of the participants, the batarian, saw this as well and growled. "This bitch's cunt is getting too sloppy," he called out to the rest of the room. When Liara saw him spit into his hand and begin rubbing saliva along the length of his cock, she winced as she realized what was coming next.  
  
As the batarian placed the tip of his cock against Miranda's asshole, Liara saw Miranda mouth "No." But her silent protests were in vain. As the batarian forced himself balls-deep inside Miranda's anal passage, the tortured human let out a shriek that Liara knew would haunt her dreams for the rest of her life.  
  
And it went on and on for hours after that. By the time the sixth participant, the turian, made his way to Miranda's backside, several of the men had regained their erections. The first man came around the table and, placing a hand on Miranda's back, roughly bent her down across the metal surface. Miranda gasped at the feeling of cold steel against her bare breasts, and soon found her open mouth filled by the first man's regained erection. While the turian forced his unlubricated cock into Miranda's ass, the human on the other side of the table grabbed the sides of Miranda's head and began roughly fucking her face.  
  
Soon, each man had had at least two turns at Miranda, the only measure of time for Liara being the slowly-expanding pool of spent semen spilling down between Miranda's legs, and the streaks of cum shot across her face and dribbling out of her mouth down her chin.  
  
The one mercenary who had not taken part in the gang rape was the asari. While everyone else had taken their turns on Miranda, she had simply stood in the back, her arms crossed as she smirked at the countless sexual assaults being perpetrated on the captive.  
  
Finally, mercifully, the last man still in action grabbed Miranda by the ears and shoved his cock all the way down her throat, Miranda gasping for air as he shot his load down into her stomach and pulled out before she choked to death.  
  
As the men cleaned themselves and zipped up their pants, the asari finally came forward. "You have fun, little human?" she mocked Miranda as she paced around the table, her eyes perusing every inch of the gasping, cum-soaked woman splayed out on the table. "Well, we decided to save the best for last. Mostly because... well, you won't be too much use to my men after I'm finished with you."  
  
Reaching down, the asari gripped Miranda by the shoulder and raised her up off the table, until Miranda's arms were straightened out and propping up her quivering body again.  
  
"I'm sure you Cerberus fucks have studied us inferior aliens a lot," the asari said as she glared into Miranda's eyes. "You ever heard of an Ardat-Yakshi before?"  
  
This finally brought Miranda out of her dazed stupor, her eyes going wide. The asari leader reacted to this with mirthful laughter. "You have, I see. Oh, don't worry. I'm on the low end of the spectrum. So you'll survive this, I'm sure."  
  
"Although," the asari said as she grabbed Miranda on both sides of the head. "You might wish you hadn't."  
  
Her eyes went black, and Miranda let out a blood-curdling scream. The asari leader threw back her head and moaned in ecstasy, as the sensation of merging set off every nerve in her body at once. And Miranda kept screaming and screaming, Liara eventually clapping her hands over the sides of her head to block out the horrific sound of it.  
  
Eventually, mercifully, the asari's eyes returned to normal. As soon as she released Miranda's head, Miranda fell forward onto the table before sliding backwards and hitting the floor.  
  
The asari turned to the men in the room. "Get this bitch cleaned up and back to her cell," she ordered. "Do it fast, unless you want the big boss on your asses, got it?"  
  
The men quickly complied, two of them grabbing Miranda under each arm and dragging her out of the room. A while later, the door to their cell opened, and the two men roughly tossed the still limp Miranda into the room.  
  
As Liara stared down at the bruised and unconscious Miranda, it finally struck her: this was only the first day. Even if she was wrong about the hopelessness of their situation, and somebody did come to save them, how long would they have to endure these tortures until then?

And the big question, the one that sent chills down her spine: If this is what the Shadow Broker has in store for Shepard and Miranda... what was he going to do to her?


	3. Feeding Time

Eventually, Miranda awoke from her unconscious state. Saying nothing, she simply moved to the other side of the cell and curled up into a ball, hugging her legs to her chest and shivering.  
  
Liara wanted to say something, but by the Goddess, what words could possibly make this situation any better? So they all sat in silence, Shepard still holding Liara close.  
  
After an unknown period of time, the door slid open again. Each of them tensed, waiting to see what the hovering drone would say, which of them he would summon for more torture.  
  
"All of you, please come with me," the drone said. "It is time for you to eat."  
  
With all the nightmarish events that had happened recently, food had been the last thing on Liara's mind. But as the drone had said it, Liara realized that she was painfully hungry. The three of them stood up and shuffled after the info drone.  
  
The hallways they walked through were familiar, and Liara saw the signs of the battle they had fought there. It had probably been less than 24 hours ago, but it seemed like a lifetime.  
  
The drone led them into a small mess hall. Miranda and Shepard sat down across from each other at one table, and Liara moved to claim the seat next to Shepard.  
  
"The Broker has instructed, Dr. T'Soni, that you are to eat separately from the other captives," the drone informed her.  
  
"Why..." Liara started to say, before remembering that any questions would only endanger her friends. Moving to a separate table, Liara took a seat by herself. After a few minutes, one of the Broker's henchmen came in with a tray in each hand. One of them had two plates, which he set down in front of Miranda and Shepard. The other he tossed in front of Liara, before moving to lean against the wall next to Liara's table.  
  
The food was tasteless mush, but just about anything would have tasted like the most expensive item on the Eternity Bar menu with how hungry she was. As she ate, however, Liara could feel the eyes of the man, the young human with the green mohawk, on her at all times.  
  
It was almost completely silent in the room for a long time, the only sound forks clinking against plates. So Liara almost jolted out of her chair when the man against the wall finally said, "Can't fucking believe we ain't gonna get to fuck you."  
  
Liara kept eating, her eyes fixed on her plate, trying her best not to react to the man's words. She fought the urge to freeze up as she heard him move away from the wall and walk around behind her. "Ain’t ever gotten to fuck an asari before," he muttered as he leaned down, Liara feeling his breath on her skin as he spoke. "Shit, boss doesn't have to know."  
  
She gasped as she felt his rough hand clasp around her breast.  
  
"Oh, yeah, that's nice," the mohawked human said. Liara gritted her teeth as his fingers found her nipple, stiff from the cold air on the ship, and began tugging and twisting. "How about it, babe? You want to have some fun with me? Bet I can make you beg for it, even without them giving you the..."  
  
And just as suddenly as it was there, the man's hand came away. As did the rest of him as he was pulled into the air and then thrown against the wall.  
  
For a second, Liara was terrified, thinking Shepard had finally had enough and pulled the molester away from her. But she glanced over at their table and saw her and Miranda simply sitting and watching. She only had time to be confused for a second more before the asari leader came charging into the room, reaching the human on the floor and yanking him up to his feet.  
  
"Are all humans this fucking stupid, or are you one of the special ones?" the asari spat out at the man. "What were my orders, Bowers? **What were my fucking orders?**?"  
  
"N... not to touch the asari, Delaana," Bowers stammered, the formerly cocky human now looking afraid for his life.

Delaana tossed him to the floor. "Remember that, Bowers. Because if I catch you even laying a finger on her again, I'll take you into my bedroom and show you what it's like to merge with a **real** asari." Delaana's words brought back the memory of Miranda's agonized screams for Liara, and no doubt Bowers remembered the same, based on his shivers.  
  
As she walked toward the door, she waved a dismissive hand toward Shepard and Miranda. "If you can't keep it in your pants, then play with the humans if you want. But the asari is off-limits."  
  
Standing up off the floor, Bowers glowered, struggling to maintain his dignity after being manhandled by an asari half his size. After a few moments, he turned his leering eyes to the two dining humans.  
  
"Hey, there, ladies," Bowers smirked as he leaned down at the table. "How are you liking your meals? Tasting good?"  
  
When the two of them said nothing, Bowers pounded a fist on the table, causing the plates and the women to jump. "Answer me! How do you like the food?"  
  
"It's good," Shepard quietly answered.  
  
Miranda nodded. "It's very good, thank you," she put on her meekest tone, most likely hoping that playing along would end the encounter with Bowers more quickly.  
  
"Hey, great," Bowers said, his tone turning pleasant again, like a twisted version of a waiter asking if you needed any more wine. "Glad you like it. The cook added a little something extra for you ladies. A little... spice that he thought you'd absolutely love. But that's just the appetizer. I've got the main course right here."  
  
Reaching down, Bowers unzipped his pants, pulling out his cock and stroking it until it was rigid. "We like to call it the Super Sausage Surprise." Turning to Shepard, he thrust his throbbing prick into her face. "Here, why don't you have a taste?"  
  
With no other option, Shepard leaned forward and gave the head of Bowers's cock a lick. "Oh, you can do better than that," Bowers said, as he grabbed the back of Shepard's head and forced her mouth down on his cock. Liara could hear Shepard gag as Bowers thrust his manhood to the back of her throat. Looking over his shoulder at Liara, he gave her a wink. "That's the Super Sausage Surprise for ya. Just one taste, and you just gotta eat it alllllll up!"  
  
After several minutes of forced facefucking, Bowers thrust one last time into Shepard's throat, holding Shepard down on his length. As she heard Shepard making gagging, choking sounds, Liara shook with anger, fighting the urge to use her biotics to smear this human all across the mess hall.  
  
Finally, just as Shepard's eyes were starting to roll back in her head, Bowers pulled out. Shepard gasped for air, as Bowers watched her with a vicious smile.  
  
"You gobbled that all up, huh?" Bowers said. "Looks like you really enjoyed it." Waving a hand toward Miranda, sitting frozen across from Shepard, he grinned. "Why don't you tell your dining companion here how much you loved the sausage?"  
  
Shepard was still gasping for breath, and Bowers leaned down with narrowed eyes. "Did you hear me? Your friend is still hungry. Tell her what to order, **now**."  
  
"I think..." Shepard coughed several times before she could speak again. "I think you should try the sausage, Miranda," she blandly recited. "It's very... tasty."  
  
"Now that's a recommendation if ever I heard one," Bowers said, turning his saliva-coated dick towards Miranda. "Now then. Can I take your order please?"  
  
Her expression pained, her eyes locked on the cock bobbing lewdly in front of her, Miranda forced out the words. "I'd like... like the sausage, please."  
  
"An excellent choice, madam," Bowers enthused, before grabbing Miranda's head and shoving his cock as far down her throat as he was able. "Mmm, nothing makes me happier than a satisfied customer."  
  
The brutal deepthroating went on for an agonizingly long time, Miranda struggling for breath in-between Bowers's cock blocking her air passage. Eventually, as Bowers started to signal the start of his climax, he pulled out of Miranda's mouth and started rapidly jerking his prick.  
  
"And... now... the best part of any meal..." Bowers pointed the tip of his cock toward Miranda's plate and grunted, "Dessert, with plenty of icing on top!"

Bowers's cock jerked, and a thick strand of cum shot across what was left of Miranda's meal. After several spurts, Bowers aimed his prick at Shepard's plate and fired off the rest of his load across her half-eaten food.  
  
"Oh, fuck," Bowers said, as he returned his limp cock to his pants. Looking from Shepard to Miranda, he frowned. "Ladies, what's wrong? You know, the cook hates it when he works hard on a meal and you don't clean your plates. Come on, now, eat up!"  
  
Liara felt her stomach turn as Shepard and Miranda picked up their forks and started scooping up the tainted food on their plates. Shepard gagged a bit as the first bit of bland food mixed with sticky cum went down her throat, but she and Miranda obediently worked on eating the remaining food.  
  
"I'd like the sausage, please," Liara suddenly blurted out.  
  
The sound of her voice startled Bowers, who turned to face her with a nervous expression. "Uh... I'm afraid that item's no longer available."  
  
Standing up, Liara moved toward Bowers. "Come on, please," she forced a seductive smile onto her face. "I've heard such good things about it from my friends. Sure I can't convince you to whip me up some of that amazing sausage..."  
  
As Liara came closer, Bowers backed away, his eyes wide with fear. "Hey, get back in your chair!" he exclaimed, but the previous confidence in his voice was gone.  
  
"Just one... little... bite..." Liara said, as she raised her hand up toward Bowers's face. "Please..."  
  
With a frightened squeak, Bowers dodged away from Liara's hand and bolted out of the door.  
  
Returning to her seat, Liara gave a light smile. It was a hollow victory in the end, but these days hollow victories were probably the best she could hope for.


	4. Friendly Chats with the Captors

As they meekly followed Glyph back to their cell, one of the Broker's human henchmen, a dark-skinned man with elaborately braided hair and a pointed goatee, stepped in front of Liara bringing up the rear.  
  
"You, with me," he gestured her in the opposite direction. Shepard turned around, the fear on her face evident. Seeing their hesitation, the guard barked at the two human women. "Keep moving!"  
  
Reluctantly, Shepard turned her back on Liara, but not before staring deeply into her eyes. As if trying to will her to survive what was about to come.  
  
"So, here it is," Liara thought, as she followed the guard away from her companions down the hallway. "It's my turn to be punished." With the way Delaana had exploded at Bowers over even touching her, Liara doubted that what was to come was anything as simple as a gang rape by the Broker's minions. Perhaps the Broker wanted her saved for himself, gloat in her face about her defeat as he forced his putrid cock inside her.  
  
But as the human kept leading her through the ship, she remembered enough of its layout to know that they weren't heading for the Broker's office. So where were they going, and what hell would be there waiting for her?  
  
Eventually, the guard directed her to a closed door before walking away, leaving her standing and waiting. She held her breath as the door slid open, terrified of what would await her.  
  
"Come in," said Delaana, her back turned to Liara as she arranged things on a shelf in what appeared to be her new office. "Sit down over there," she pointed at the chair opposite the simple steel desk.  
  
Liara cautiously entered, still half expecting someone to grab her and start violating her. But no one else was in the office as she stepped inside.  
  
"Of course," Liara finally realized. "Simple physical violation isn't enough for the Shadow Broker to punish me with. He's going to have the Ardat Yakshi torture me properly."  
  
Finally satisfied with her work, Delaana turned and sat down opposite Liara at her desk. "Now, I'm supposed to be delivering a message from the Shadow Broker to you," Leaning back in her chair, the asari mercenary crossed her legs across the top of her desk. "Something something ever pull a stunt like you did in the mess hall again blah blah blah Shepard's head blowing off her shoulders and landing in her lunch, you know the charmer my boss is." Clasping her hands behind her neck, Delaana smirked. "But between you and me... that shit was fucking hysterical. Thought Bowers was gonna piss his pants the way he sprinted off like that."  
  
Liara said nothing, but couldn't keep the disgust off her face. This woman was making jokes to her like they were having a friendly conversation, when minutes ago she was watching her friends get a cock jammed down their throats?  
  
"Seriously, though, don't do it again," Delaana's smile faded. "Bowers was too stupid to understand that the rule is **he** isn't supposed to touch **you**. You go around trying to lay a hand on him or any of my men again, or resist any of their orders, and they've been instructed to put a few fists to your friends' faces to remind you who's boss around here. The redhead first. We understood?"  
  
Liara nodded.  
  
"Good, glad we're on the same page," Delaana said, before chuckling again. "But still, that was pretty damn crafty. Guess that's how a pretty young thing like you went from digging through graves to being one of the heroes of the Citadel." Casting an eye down on Liara's naked body, the Ardat Yakshi crooked her mouth. "Can't say you look like much of a hero these days, though."  
  
"Take..." Liara blurted out, before remembering and clamping her mouth shut, eyes wide with fear.  
  
Delaana swung her legs up off the desk, leaning forward with a wide, wicked grin. "Oh, what were you about to say, little one? Don't be shy; I won't do anything to your little human friends. Speak up."  
  
Staring at the floor, Liara muttered. "Take these collars off us, and see how we look to you then."

Liara expected an angry threat or a blow to the face for the remark, but Delaana just laughed again. "Still some fire in you, huh?" she remarked. "Well, not to worry. The boss man will be putting that fire out before too long."  
  
"What is he going to do to me?" Liara said, hoping to get some information out of her captor while she was in a talkative mood.  
  
A quizzical expression came to Delaana's face, and she shrugged. "Not a damn thing, far as I know. Way he told it to me while I was flying over here, he's going to break you without laying a single finger on you. Or tentacle or whatever the hell he's got." Leaning forward eagerly, Delaana gave Liara a hopeful look. "You saw him in person, right? What's he really look like?"  
  
"He's a volus," Liara quickly replied. "Weak as a kitten, I don't know how we lost to him. If you stormed into his office right now, you could take him down without a fight."  
  
There was that laugh of hers again, the sound of it grating on Liara's few remaining nerves. "You **are** a feisty one! This assignment's gonna be a lot more fun than I thought. Seeing you lose all that resistance and turn into a weak, docile little..."  
  
"I'd like to go back to my cell now, please," Liara said.  
  
Delaana's smile faded, and she looked a little disappointed. "Okoru!" she barked into an intercom, and the dark-skinned human guard from earlier arrived after a few seconds. "Take the little troublemaker back with the rest of the slaves."  
  
Liara kept her eyes locked on this woman, making the resolution right then and there that she would not let Delaana see her break. This woman, this pathetic excuse for an asari would not get the privilege of beating her.  
  
* * *  
  
When the door to her cell opened, the sounds that she heard made Liara go numb. Rough grunts, and the unmistakable wet slaps of flesh against flesh.  
  
Sure enough, when Liara reluctantly stepped inside the bare cell, she found Shepard and Miranda down on their hands and knees, and two of the guards taking them from behind. "Don't mind us," said the human taking Miranda up the ass, a gaunt man with deep red burn scars across the left side of his face. "My buddy and I got to talking with your friends, and found out the funniest thing. Tell her, Grell."  
  
"My father..." Grell said, pulling back and thrusting into Shepard's ass as hard he could. "...fought in the Skyllian Blitz," Another rough thrust, this one nearly making Shepard's face strike the floor with its ferocity. "He **died** in the Skyllian Blitz. Probably shot by this worthless bitch," Gripping Shepard hard at the waist, Grell threw her back against the full length of his alien cock.  
  
"Now, now, Grell, a lot of batarians died during the Blitz," the human said with a mockingly soothing tone to his voice as he plowed Miranda's asshole. "Fathers, brothers, sons... and no matter how hard you rape this bitch, it won't bring them back." Shrugging, he added. "Not saying you should stop trying, though."  
  
Sitting in the corner of the cell furthest away from the depravity, Liara curled up and put her head between her knees, crossing her arms to block out as much of what was happening and praying to the Goddess for it to be over soon.  
  
"Grrrrh, hey!" she heard the batarian yell. "Don't you close your eyes! Put your head back up and watch me fuck this batarian-murdering bitch of yours!"  
  
Remembering Delaana's words, and seeing the image in her head of these men adding beatings to their already brutal rapes, Liara reluctantly raised her head back up. Trying not to focus on what was happening, Liara kept her eyes locked on Shepard's, hoping that she and Shepard would be able to lose themselves in that moment of eye contact.  
  
But what she saw there brought Liara no comfort. Shepard's eyes were wide-open and dull, staring into Liara's but somehow still far away. Liara worried that Shepard might already be losing her mind from this hellish situation.   
  
Looking over at Miranda, Liara was saddened to see the same dead, distant expression in her eyes as well. Before, she had shrieked and yelled as one alien after another had violated her ass; now, she simply stared silently into space as she was being fucked.

Grell sneered over at his friend, his tone mocking. "Don't think the asari bitch is enjoying herself, Yuri."  
  
"Wait, you're not?" the human, Yuri, said to Liara with a mock tone of surprise. "Shit, if I were in your position right now, watching two studs like us ramming a couple of hot little sluts like these, I'd definitely be playing with myself." When Liara didn't do anything at first, Yuri arched his one remaining eyebrow. "You heard me. Spread those legs, bitch, give us a show."  
  
Liara shuddered as she leaned back against the wall, spreading her thighs and exposing her bare crotch. Even if they couldn't touch her, it seemed the Broker's minions could still find ways to torture her. With the two rapists staring at her expectantly, she reached down and rubbed the tip of her finger up and down the lips of her pussy. Dully, she slowly worked one of her fingers up inside of herself, taking no pleasure at the feeling of penetrating herself.  
  
"Yeah, I knew that this shit would get you hot," Yuri leered at Liara's crotch while he continued pounding away at Miranda. "You like watching me and Grell fuck your friends, don't you?"  
  
"Y...yes," Liara muttered, a voice in her head saying, "Play along. It's the best way to make it end as soon as possible. Feed his sick fantasies and he'll cum and be done with Miranda."  
  
Rubbing at the apex of her slit, she let out a faked moan of pleasure. "I'm so horny right now," she cooed. "Watching those big fat cocks pound into those tight little asses..." She racked her brains for as many phrases as she could remember from that time she had accessed the Normandy's computers and stumbled into Joker's ungodly large porn library. "Oh, fuck, I'm getting so wet watching you."  
  
"Shit, that's hot," Yuri grabbed and kneaded Miranda's ample backside as he took her. "You want me to fuck your friend here harder, don't you?"  
  
"Yeah, fuck her harder," Liara reached up with her free hand to rub and stroke her breast, wishing desperately for the human to just cum already so she could stop this hideous charade. "Spill your cum all inside her ass. Make her your obedient little bitch."  
  
While Liara's vulgar acting wasn't having the desired effect on the human, Liara heard a feral roar come from the batarian. Thrusting himself balls-deep into Shepard's ass, Grell's four eyes rolled up to the ceiling as he climaxed.  
  
"Wait," said Yuri as Grell started to pull out. "We don't want to let that precious batarian cum go to waste." Looking back to Liara, still putting on her fake show of touching herself, he grinned. "Do we, now?"  
  
"No, we don't," Liara agreed, although she wasn't entirely sure what the human was saying.  
  
As the two men started rearranging the women, however, Liara's rubbing fingers paused as she realized what the human had meant.  
  
Grell pulled out of Shepard's ass, and moved away to allow Yuri to shove Miranda's face between Shepard's asscheeks. "Suck it out of there, bitch," Grell commanded, baring his sharp teeth in an evil grin as he watched Miranda suck and lap at Shepard's asshole. "Every last drop, nothing goes to waste."  
  
Yuri cackled as he watched Miranda slurping up Grell's load from Shepard's anus. He glanced over at Liara, who quickly resumed her feigned self-pleasuring, every last ounce of her acting abilities going towards looking as if she found this sick turn of events incredibly arousing.  
  
Once the two rapists were satisfied that Miranda had retrieved as much cum as she could with her mouth, they commanded Shepard to turn around, and pressed their two faces together. Their eyes still glassy and stunned, Shepard and Miranda obediently made out for their abusers' pleasure, cum smearing from Miranda's face all over Shepard's.  
  
While they grinned and watched the two women's tongues swirling together, Grell leaned over and whispered something to his human comrade, pointing a finger at Liara.  
  
"Grell, my man, you're a genius," said Yuri. "Boss says we ain't allowed to touch you, asari, but didn't say anything about having one of your friends do it."  
  
Reaching down and grabbing a handful of Shepard's deep red hair, he yanked her away from Miranda's cum-stained face and planted her directly between Liara's legs.

"Your friend's gotten all hot and bothered watching you, bitch," Yuri said. "Think it's only right you help her relieve all that tension, don't you agree?"  
  
"Oh, Goddess, no," Liara cried out in her head, as she watched Shepard drop her mouth down to Liara's naked sex and begin slowly lapping. So many memories came back of the nights when she would quiver in anticipation of these moments. Shepard lovingly tasting her lover's arousal, pausing every so often to look up at her with eyes filled with love. Having Shepard's tongue on her now, here in this hellhole, made a mockery of their lovemaking.  
  
As if to make matters worse, Yuri seemed to remember just then that his erect cock was still jutting lewdly out of his fly. Positioning himself behind Shepard, he placed the head of his cock at Shepard's now well-lubricated asshole and starting fucking her vigorously. With every rough thrust, Liara could feel Shepard's face press into the folds of her azure.  
  
"Gotten kinda quiet," Yuri said as he stared with narrowed eyes at Liara. "If this ain't doing it for you, I could go grab the other one."  
  
"No," Liara quickly refused. If one of them was going to have to do this, better it be the woman who had already been her lover. Quickly getting back into her role, she started let out heated moans. "Oh, Shepard," she went back to spewing out overblown porn dialogue for the benefit of her captors. "Lick that pussy, Shepard. Your tongue feels so good on my clit. Keep go... goi..."  
  
Liara gasped. What was Shepard doing? Liara had expected her to give a few quick licks, just enough to fool their captors, before Liara would let out a huge faked climax and hope that would be enough to satisfy them. But instead, Shepard was putting all of her effort into legitimately pleasuring Liara with her lips and tongue, doing things that in the safety of their bed would have sent Liara screaming into climax. And even in these circumstances, Shepard's oral skills were having an effect on Liara's body that she was finding difficult to ignore.  
  
"No, Shepard," Liara was no longer playing the part of the eager slut, but now trying desperately to get Shepard to slow down. "Please, it's too much..." Shepard must have been too dazed to hear her, though, as she only redoubled her efforts on Liara's now-dripping sex. Even with Yuri roughly taking her from behind, Shepard was skillfully able to hit every last one of Liara's sensitive spots, the way only a lover could.  
  
"Shepard, stoooooOOOOOO...." Throwing her head back, Liara finally gave up the fight, and her climax washed over her like a tidal wave. Unable to hold it back, she closed her eyes and tried to remove herself from her circumstances. She was on the Normandy, warm in Shepard's bed, the red-headed human she had come to love more than life itself lying down next to her and wrapping her in a tight embrace.  
  
It would be alright. Everything would be alright.  
  
But then she had to open her eyes, and face reality. Liara's climax seemed to have finally pushed Yuri over the edge, and he was biting his bottom lip as he made several quick thrusts into Shepard's asshole.  
  
As soon as Yuri was done filling Shepard's ass with cum, Grell pulled Miranda over by the arm, and their two captors laughed as they again pressed her mouth against Shepard's anus, commanding her to suck up Yuri's load and swallow it down along with Grell's.  
  
Reaching back with quivering hands, Shepard gripped onto her asscheeks and spread them as wide as she could, giving Miranda better access to her anal cavity. Liara didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "That's Shepard," a quivering, near-hysterical version of her voice said in her head. "Always thinking about helping others."  
  
Both of them satisfied and tired, Yuri and Grell tossed the ladies a couple of ratty towels before leaving the cell. As Shepard wiped batarian cum and asari juices off her face, Liara moved in to sit next to her.

"Shepard, why... you shouldn't have..."  
  
Shepard looked over at Liara, and again there was that dull, dead expression in her eyes that broke Liara's heart. "I just wanted you to feel good, Liara," Shepard said. "Wanted to make you happy."  
  
"Shepard," Liara said as she hugged Shepard tight, fighting to keep the tears from coming again. "Those things I said, Shepard..."  
  
"It's okay, Liara," Shepard said, hugging Liara back. "You've probably got the right idea. Play along with them, act the way they want you to act, and it'll be over more quickly than if you resist."  
  
To hear those words come out of Shepard, to hear her sound so defeated, made Liara want to die. "Shepard, I'm so sorry..."  
  
"Stop apologizing, Liara," Shepard said, and Liara was glad to see the slightest trace of a smile finally break her formerly expressionless face. "The situation is what it is. We're just going to have to deal with it the best we can."  
  
Lying back on the cold floor, Shepard next to her, Liara eventually fell into a fitful, nightmare-filled sleep.  
  
The first day of their captivity was over.


	5. Messy Meals

"It seems that your perfect human genetics were insufficient to combat the power of the Shadow Broker," the red-skinned yahg coldly remarked, as he slowly forced his thick cock inside of a wincing Miranda.  
  
They had been woken up from their restless slumber by the arrival of Glyph, who instructed Miranda to follow him to the Broker's office. When the vidsceen in the cell had turned on, their beastly captor was already naked, his erect cock twitching as if in anticipation. When Miranda had entered, he'd commanded her to sit on the edge of the desk. After she'd dutifully complied, the Broker had reached down to grab an ankle in each hand before aiming his prick at Miranda's opening.  
  
"Oohhhhh!" Miranda moaned, as the giant column of flesh forced her open wider. Mouth gaping open, the Broker ran a slobbering tongue along her breasts, leaving a glimmering trail of saliva in its wake.  
  
"Perhaps I should send a recording of this to the Illusive Man," the Broker mused, his cock now completely penetrating Miranda. "Show him where his prized lieutenant ended up after leaving his service. And a copy to Henry Lawson, as a display of how pathetic his supposed perfect genes were after all."  
  
As the Broker began slowly pumping in and out of Miranda, Shepard pulled Liara's attention away from the spectacle on the screen. "Are you doing okay?"  
  
A ridiculous question considering their circumstances, but Liara knew that Shepard was just trying to keep her mind off the grunting and growling being shown on the screen. "I'm fine," Liara said, finally, not sure how else to answer.  
  
"What did they do to you?" Shepard asked, as she sidled in close to her lover. "When they took you away after eating yesterday, where did they take you?"  
  
For a split second, Liara had to fight the instinct to lie. To tell Shepard about the horrible tortures she'd had to endure, just to make Shepard feel a little bit better about her own circumstances. But it would have been wrong.  
  
So she told the truth, about Delaana and the talk they had had, the threats she had delivered.  
  
"That's... that's all?" Shepard asked, and the tone of her voice was strange. Liara wasn't sure if she was relieved... or envious.  
  
"She said..." Liara hesitated, worrying that telling Shepard the whole truth would be even worse. But she finally spoke. "She said that the Broker or his men weren't going to do anything to me. That the Broker would break me without lifting a finger."  
  
Shepard laughed bitterly. "Probably just a lie. Trying to make you think he's going to be easy on you before unleashing the harshest punishment." Staring into Liara's eyes, Shepard clapped a hand on her shoulder. "No matter what happens, don't let them break you. Even if Miranda and I... if you stay strong, keep sane, then I'll have a reason to hold on to at least some of my sanity for when we get out of this."  
  
" **When** we get out of this," Shepard had said. Even with how dire the situation was, it filled Liara with hope to see that determination return to Shepard. The day before, she had seemed so defeated, so ready to give in. But apparently a night's rest to recuperate from the horrors of the previous day had lit something in Shepard.  
  
Maybe it was all a way of fooling themselves, but now, at this moment, Liara saw the Shepard she fell in love with again, and it made her heart soar.  
  
But the moment was quickly spoiled by the roar of the Shadow Broker on the video screen. Pulling out his slimy cock, he gripped it in one of his powerful three-fingered hands and was soon spraying his yellow cum across Miranda's sweating naked body. Miranda shut her eyes and waited for the shower of fluids to be over, and by the time she opened them again, her entire body seemed to be coated with the foul ichor.  
  
"Take her to be cleaned and return her to her cell," the Broker instructed Glyph as he began getting dressed. "I have important matters to attend to."  
  
Miranda numbly hoisted herself off the desk and followed behind Glyph. Sometime later, she stepped into the room, soaking wet, and returned to sit on the far side of the cell.

The minutes turned into hours, the three of them sitting in silence. Shepard held Liara in her arms, gently stroking her shoulder, while Miranda said against the wall with her legs curled up against her, eyes staring vacantly into space.  
  
With a buzz, the door slid open, and Glyph entered. "All of you, please come with me. It is time for you to eat," it said, in the same words and tone as the previous day.  
  
"How many more times am I going to hear those words?" Liara thought to herself as she and the two human women followed behind the glowing globe. "How many more times before I don't even hear them through the madness in my mind?"  
  
"No matter what happens," she heard Shepard in her head again, and it broke her out of her depression. She would be strong, for Shepard's sake.  
  
Again, Liara was separated from the other two women in the mess hall. Fear filled Liara, as she prayed that Bowers would not be the one to serve them today. When Okoru, the dark-skinned human, walked in with two trays, Liara felt a little relieved.  
  
Just like the previous time, Okoru laid down one tray with two plates in front of Shepard and Miranda, and placed the remaining tray in front of Liara. After he was finished serving, he took a seat at one of the other tables, his eyes darting back and forth between Liara and the human women.  
  
"Are they afraid that we're going to try to kill ourselves with our forks?" she thought to herself, wondering why Delaana felt they needed a guard while they ate. Trying her best to ignore the watchful eye of the Broker's henchman, she ate slowly, trying to prolong this moment of peace as long as possible.  
  
She was about halfway finished with her meal when the door slid open again, and Liara felt her blood run cold.  
  
"Good afternoon, everybody," said Bowers as he stepped into the mess hall. Liara tried not to let the fear show on her face as he immediately locked eyes on her, stepping briskly across the room and pounding his fists down on her table as he leaned forward.  
  
"That was a pretty good trick you pulled on me, asari bitch," Bowers said, a smile on his face despite his harsh words. "You like playing tricks? Like playing little games like that?"  
  
When it was clear that the cruel human was expecting an answer, Liara meekly replied. "N... no."  
  
"Sure you do," Bowers’ teeth were stained yellow, and Liara felt like she could see every last inch of them with how wide he was smiling. "Everybody loves a good joke now and again. So, just for you, I've got a little trick of my own to play later tonight. Not on you, of course."  
  
Standing up, Bowers stomped over and grabbed Shepard by the hair. Shepard let out a sharp cry as Bowers shook her. His eyes remained locked on Liara as he continued. "No, not on you, but on your precious little girlfriend. Can't wait for you to see what I've got lined up for her. I just know you're gonna love it."  
  
Dropping Shepard back to her chair, Bowers reached down and picked up her plate. "But for now, I think we need a little reminder around here. A reminder of who's the master... and who's the bitch."  
  
Bowers dumped the plate upside down, the remaining portions of Shepard's food hitting the floor. "Oh, now look at the mess you've made!" Bowers scolded Shepard as he pointed down at the spilled food. "How about you clean that up like a good little bitch? Get down there and lick up every last crumb."  
  
That far-off, dazed look was starting to return to Shepard's eyes, Liara noted in dismay. Slowly, as if in a trance, Shepard got down on the floor on her hands and knees. When Bowers decided she wasn't moving fast enough, he placed the heel of his boot against the back of Shepard's neck and shoved, pressing Shepard's face into the pile of mush on the floor.  
  
"Go on then, little bitch," Bowers taunted her. "Lick it up for me." He released the pressure on Shepard's head, and Shepard obediently began running her tongue across the mound of spilled food.  
  
"That's a good bitch," Bowers said, as he walked around behind the prone Shepard and began unzipping his pants. Looking over at Liara, he gave her that wide grin again. "And you know what every good bitch loves, don't you? A nice... fat... bone."

Kneeling behind Shepard, Bowers gripped her hips and began roughly thrusting. "Don't stop cleaning up that mess, now!" he ordered her, delivering a hard slap to her backside for emphasis. "Every last crumb, you hear me? Or the cook's going to be very upset."  
  
Shepard tried her best to slurp up the remaining bits of food while Bowers’ cock slammed in and out of her. Behind her, Liara heard a chair being shoved away from a table. For one brief, insane moment, Liara thought that maybe Okoru was going to put a stop to this. But that dream died quickly, as the muscular man moved to stand behind Miranda with a leer on his face.  
  
"You're not eating, love," Okoru said in a thick African accent. "Perhaps you need some assistance, yes? Stand up for me, my dear. Do not be afraid."  
  
Slowly, Miranda rose to her feet. As soon as she was completely upright, Okoru grabbed her by the back of the head and roughly bent her forward, shoving her face into her plate.  
  
"There you go," Okoru said, stroking her ass with one hand while he retrieved his cock from his pants with the other. "Fine looking woman like yourself shouldn't starve herself. Ain't no... aahhh..." he moaned as his cock entered her. "Ain't no situation can't be made a little bit easier once you've had a nice, nutritious meal. Trust me, love, I know."  
  
Liara stared at her empty plate, waiting for the sounds of deep grunting and slurping of food to be finished. Eventually, Bowers and Okoru had spent themselves inside the women, and were zipping up their pants on the way out the door.  
  
Shepard and Miranda returned to their seats without a word, food still clinging to their faces as they stared into space.


	6. Vulgar Display of Power

"...big fat cocks pound into those tight little asses," Liara heard herself say as she was ushered into Delaana's office.  
  
Again, on the way back to their cell after eating, one of the guards had stopped Liara and instructed her to follow him to his leader's office. She had stepped inside to find Delaana watching a video display on her desk with an amused smirk.  
  
"Oh, fuck, I'm getting so wet watching you," the sound of her own vulgar words being played back to her filled her with shame, as she remembered back to when she first heard that language.  
  
It had been after Ilos, probably the happiest time of her life. She and Shepard had consummated their relationship just before the final battle against Saren, and with nothing but scattered pockets of geth to deal with, they had plenty of downtime to spend with each other.  
  
Liara had been exploring the Normandy's file systems, looking for a research paper she had lost, when she had discovered the large cache of pornography Joker had stashed inside the memory banks. She knew she shouldn't look, but the first file she had opened had been a scene of two human women having sex.  
  
"Perhaps I should watch this for... tips," Liara had thought to herself. As she watched the two women touching each other, she made note of the things they were saying. Shepard never said those sorts of things when they made love; perhaps she was waiting for Liara to use such language first.  
  
She watched several more of the videos, as part of what she thought of as research into human sexual practices. Mostly females on females, but out of curiosity she viewed a few of the videos of men having sex with women. ("Perhaps Shepard would like to use one of those devices on me that they sell in the less-savory shops in the Lower Wards," she had reasoned as she watched a human male's sizable phallus drive his partner to let out a stream of vulgar pleas.)  
  
That night, she'd attempted to use some of the language in their bed, as Shepard's tongue was at work between her legs. Immediately, she'd known she'd done something wrong when Shepard stopped licking, looked up at her, and let out a barely suppressed laugh.  
  
Seeing the look on Liara's face, Shepard has immediately started apologizing profusely, while still holding back giggles. When Liara had explained that she had heard the words in human pornography, Shepard had gently explained to her that those films were made specifically for men, and that the women in the films were playing to what the average man watching wanted to hear.

"Is there... anything you _would_ like me to say to you, Shepard, while we make love?" Liara had asked her after they had spoken.  
  
Leaning towards her, Shepard had planted a gentle kiss on her lips. "You can say whatever you want to, Liara. As long as you're here with me, that's more than enough."  
  
"Spill your cum all inside her ass. Make her your obedient little bitch," she heard herself lewdly moan on the video, taking her out of her pleasant memory. At that moment in the cell, she had remembered Shepard's words about those sorts of things being what men wanted to hear, and had tried her best to imitate what she had heard. But hearing herself say those things again made her feel just as she had when Shepard had given her that confused look from between her legs: utterly mortified.  
  
Delaana had said nothing since Liara had arrived and sat down. Simply sat with her legs crossed on her desk, watching the video play out. When it started to loop around again, the asari merc leader finally switched it off. Turning her attention to Liara, she immediately began slowly clapping.  
  
"Beautiful," Delaana mockingly praised her. "An absolutely stunning performance. If I didn't know any better, I'd believe you were just an Omega whore, spreading her legs for another client."  
  
Liara kept her eyes steady on Delaana. "Have you brought me just to humiliate me?"  
  
"Not just that," Delaana said, leaning on her elbows and staring intently at Liara. "I'm just... trying to figure out what he sees in you. Why the Shadow Broker is so intent on breaking your will. Looking at you, I just don't see why he'd waste the time. Doesn't seem like there's much will to be broken."  
  
"I have fought enemies that would grind you into dust without a second thought," Liara's voice was full of steel. "I fought against Saren, I fought against..."  
  
That maddening laugh again. " _You_ fought against Saren! _You_! More like 'Shepard fought against Saren and you hid behind her and let off the occasional shot to show you were helping', right?"  
  
"You know nothing about it," Liara shot back. "If you'd fought against Shepard and I before this, you would not have stood a chance."  
  
Standing up, Delaana waved a dismissive hand. "Yes, yes, I'm sure it would have been an epic battle. Like Matriarch Nessenia wrote, 'A battle to end all things. To pierce the heart and rob the soul of song.'" She looked over at Liara cockily. "Surprised? A simple thug like me quoting poetry? Maybe there's more to me than just a dirty thing to be locked away in a monastery and forgotten."  
  
She waved a hand at the row of books on the wall above her desk. "You know, much as I want to hate my people for treating me like some sort of monster, I still find the ancient poetry of our ancestors to be quite moving. Valenis, Adesina Torvus... and Matriarch Nessenia, of course."  
  
Reaching for a book off the shelf, she pulled it down and laid it gently on the desk. "So rare to find old-fashioned books these days," she mused as she ran her fingers across the cover. "But this book is special," Delaana looked up at Liara with narrowed eyes. "I'd borrowed the book from a friend, and was reading it when they came to find me. Told me that I had a choice: either cloister myself away for the rest of my life, or be executed." She smiled ruefully. "Too bad for them, I didn't like either of those choices much. So I ran, and for the longest time all I had to my name was a few credits... and this book. As I'd lie awake at night, terrified that somebody had finally found me out, I'd read Nessenia's words and be comforted, just a little."  
  
"So don't talk to me about battles, little one," Delaana said, returning the book back to its shelf. "I've been battling my entire life, fighting against an entire race that has deemed me an outcast. You really think having a few scrapes with geth and a crazy turian make you intimidating? Make you a real warrior who could match up against me?" Sitting back at her desk, she crossed her legs again and sneered at Liara. "Well, it's a pity, that you and I won't get that chance. Maybe you and I really could have had that 'battle to end all things,' the type that Nessenia wrote about so beautifully, if things had worked out different."

Delaana stopped, staring at Liara as if waiting for a reaction.  
  
And a reaction she got. When Liara let out a light snicker, following by bursting out into uproarious laughter.  
  
Delaana stared at her uncomprehendingly. "Stop it," Delaana muttered. Getting no response, she barked. "Stop laughing!"  
  
"I'm sorry," Liara said, wiping away a tear from her eye. "It's just, you had that whole speech so carefully prepared, and then had to undermine it by being a complete and utter fool!"  
  
Eyes narrowed, Delaana leaned forward at Liara. "You're calling me a fool?"  
  
"No, no," Liara said, still chuckling a little. "What I'm calling you is one of the greatest fools I have had the great displeasure of meeting. Do you even know the first thing about Nessenia's writings?"  
  
"I... I just told you!" Delaana said. "I've read her poetry since..."  
  
"You've _read_ it," Liara interrupted. "But you obviously didn't _understand_ it. Hence why I called you a fool. Nessenia was ending a relationship with her lover of two centuries when she wrote that poem. The 'battle' she wrote about was a reference the fights they were having, not a literal battle. I would have thought anybody would have picked up on that subtext, but I guess not..."  
  
"I..." Delaana stammered, her tone angry and just a little embarrassed. "You..."  
  
Liara smiled confidently at the flustered mercenary. "You know, you might have known more about that poem if you'd have some quiet, contemplative time to study it. Perhaps in a monastery of some sort."  
  
Delaana stabbed the button on her desk with all her strength. "Get her the fuck out of here right now!" she yelled at the guard outside of the office. As the mercenary entered and got Liara to her feet, Delaana sneered at her. "Understand my men have a special show for you tonight. Hope you enjoy it. Your bitch sure won't."  
  
Liara stared back at Delaana all the way out, the sight of her fuming keeping a smile on her face all the way back to her cell.  
  
* * *  
  
As the door slid open, Liara braced herself for the sounds of more brutal sex. But there was nothing. Liara's moment of relief turned to ice in her veins as she walked inside the cell and saw only Miranda.  
  
"They took her a few minutes ago," Miranda muttered. From the fluids dripping from her face, at least one of them had made use of Miranda's mouth before departing with Shepard.  
  
Once the door had slid closed and Liara had taken a seat, the vidscreen flared to life. It was the room where Miranda had first been taken by the Broker's men, although the table from before had been removed, the room completely bare.  
  
As Liara and Miranda watched, Shepard was ushered into the room. Bowers directed her towards the center of the room, and then commanded her to get down on her hands and knees. The rest of the mercenaries, minus Delaana and one of the humans, filed in after and took positions around the room.  
  
"You know, I was originally planning to let you entertain the men tonight," Bowers said, speaking loudly for his comrades in the room to all hear. "But after seeing the way you acted at dinner today, slobbering up all your food off the floor like a filthy animal, I knew that having these guys fuck you would be completely beneath them."  
  
Crouching down by Shepard's head, Bowers stroked a strand of hair out of her face. "See, I realized that, if you were going to act like a filthy bitch, that I should treat you like a bitch. So, bitch," Bowers said the words not to Shepard, but looking into the camera. "Let me play my own little trick. Roth!"  
  
The door to the room slid open, and the bald-headed human with the eyepatch walked in.  
  
"Ohhhhh..." Miranda let out a pained moan as she saw what Roth had brought with him.  
  
One end of a thick rope was in Roth's hand, the other end connected to the muzzle strapped across the jaw of a growling varren.

The men in the room let out a cheer as the animal pawed into the room. Roth led it around the room to parade in front of Shepard, and Liara saw her muscles tense as she saw the surprise their captors had in store for her.  
  
"Got a present for you, boy," Roth said, crouching down next to the large animal. "She's all yours, just... what's that?" Putting on an overblown surprised expression, he leaned in to the varren's muzzled maw. "You don't like her? You say she's too ugly for you?"  
  
The crowd let out a laugh, while Shepard clenched and unclenched her fists from the floor. "Goddess," Liara said. "I thought I had seen the depths of their cruelty. Please, don't let them do this to her."  
  
And for a moment, Liara thought she might get her wish. The varren showed little interest in the prone human female in front of it, instead sniffing around the room as if looking for food.  
  
"Hmm, looks like you're hungry, huh, boy?" Roth said. He turned to one of the men, who handed him a plate of red, bloody meat. Liara didn't want to think about what animal that had come from.  
  
But the varren was obviously not a choosy eater, smelling the meat even through its muzzle and leaping up into the air to try and get at the food. "Hold on a second, boy," Roth said to the animal, reaching into his back pocket and pulling a metal bottle. "Got a little something extra to add to it."  
  
At first, Liara thought the human was spilling some sort of alcohol onto the meat. But she wasn't familiar with any liquors that looked like the green, thick liquid that was spraying out onto the bloody dish. After the contents of the bottle were empty, Roth tossed the dish on the floor. The varren sniffed at the meat, desperately trying to get its tongue out to lick at the tasty morsels, but the muzzle restricted it from eating.  
  
"Here you go, boy," Roth said, reaching down to unstrap the muzzle. "Dig in."  
  
As soon as its jaws were free, the varren began hungrily wolfing down the meat, the sound of its voracious slurping and chewing absolutely disgusting. The men in the room all watched the varren eagerly, as if waiting for something to happen.  
  
After several minutes, the beast finally finished licking up the last drops of blood and the green fluid. Liara suddenly had an image of the varren turning its hungry jaws on Shepard next and became terrified. Had the Shadow Broker finally tired of this? Would Liara have to watch while a vicious beast ripped her lover to shreds?  
  
But instead of turning its eyes towards Shepard, the beast started swaying back and forth on its paws. Its tongue lolled out between its sharp teeth, and Liara watched in horror as a thick, pulsing growth became visible between the beast's hind legs.  
  
"Whoa, down, boy!" Roth said with a laugh, as the beast started rearing up to try humping his leg. "Looks like you're in the mood to fuck even an ugly bitch like this one, huh?"  
  
Grabbing the varren by its collar, Roth let him around to Shepard's backside. Giving Shepard's ass a firm slap to draw the varren's attention, Roth grinned with crooked, half-missing teeth. "Go on, don't be shy. Can't you just feel her begging for it?"  
  
Eyes half-lidded and moving somewhat slowly, the beast pawed up to Shepard and sniffed experimentally at the slit between her legs. Whatever it smelled got the animal's tail wagging furiously, and Liara gritted her teeth as the beast's massive tongue came out and started lapping wetly at Shepard's pussy.  
  
"Looks like he's got a taste for some fish," Bowers said, arms crossed and smirking, and the men in the room let out a laugh.  
  
Meanwhile, the varren's cock was now red and throbbing, and the animal was trying its best to get into a mounting position. As it tried to hoist itself up on top of Shepard, one of its paws slipped. Shepard let out a weak cry as the varren's claws bit into her flesh, leaving a gash across her side.

"Shit," Roth said, staring at the wound with a nervous expression. "Bowers, maybe we'd better call this off. If the boss sees..."  
  
Bowers scoffed. "Shepard's tough, she can take it. And we'll slap some medi-gel on afterward, Delaana doesn't need to know."  
  
Liara stared at the trickle of red running down Shepard's side, and remembered the bloody meat the varren had consumed earlier. "This needs to stop," Liara frantically thought to herself. "These idiots are going to get Shepard killed with their sick games."  
  
Thankfully, at least, there were no more injuries before the varren was able to get itself into position. Unfortunately, this still left Shepard in the position of having a suddenly horny animal poised and ready to put itself inside her.  
  
"Give it to her, big guy," Bowers smirked as he gave the varren a quick slap to the backside. With a whine, the varren moved forward, and his dark red cock fully penetrated Shepard.  
  
"Urgh!" moaned Shepard, and Liara remembered in horror her college biology classes. Once the varren was fully inserted into a potential mate, it would swell its bulbus glandis to tie itself inside the female. From Shepard's gritted teeth and pounding fist on the floor, it was obvious that the large bulb of flesh was inflating inside of her at that moment.  
  
As the crowd cheered in approval, the varren began humping against Shepard. Its rapid thrusts shook her body as it desperately fucked her, its animal breeding instinct taking complete control over its body. Shepard's eyes were squinted shut, while she bit the ball of her thumb to keep herself from screaming.  
  
While the rest of the crowd whooped and cheered, Bowers looked up to stare directly into the camera. "You liking my little joke, you blue bitch?" he spoke loudly to be heard above the crowd. "You going to fuck with me again, huh?"  
  
Liara had hated before. She had hated Saren and Sovereign for what they had done to her mother. She hated the Collectors for destroying the Normandy and killing the woman she loved. She hated the Shadow Broker for trying to prevent her from bringing Shepard back and for kidnapping Feron.  
  
But never before had she hated someone as violently, as purely as she hated this pathetic, vicious, twisted human in this one moment. If they had been in the same room at that moment, Liara might have forgotten about the consequences in that moment and used her biotics to dash this man's head against the wall again... and again... and again...  
  
Behind Bowers, the varren's humping had slowed down, as its jaw gaped open wide in satisfaction. Shepard winced as the beast tried to withdraw itself from her, only to remained locked inside.  
  
After several minutes of struggling, the knot had finally receded, and the beast pulled out of Shepard. The deflating organ was followed by a thick trickle of varren semen, splattering out of Shepard onto the floor.  
  
"Oh, would you look at that?" Bowers observed the dripping fluid with a grin. "Congratulations, Shepard! I'm sure it's going to be a beautiful litter." Reaching down to the varren's collar, Bowers led the dazed beast around to the front of Shepard, positioning its spent member directly in front of her face. "How about you give your new husband a nice big kiss to celebrate? Get him nice and cleaned off, and maybe he'll be able to go in for round two."  
  
"No, please, not again," Liara thought, as she watched Shepard's lips quiver before slowly extending her tongue toward the varren's twitching member. The tip of her tongue was almost to the head of the animal's cock and...

"Enough of this!" yelled out a voice, causing everyone in the room to jump. With everything that had been going on, no one had noticed Delaana's entrance into the room. "Are you assholes completely out of your minds?"  
  
"Delaana, I thought we..." was all Bowers got out before Delaana was on him, her hand reaching up under his jaw and clamping down hard. Dragging his face close to hers, she snarled between clenched teeth.  
  
"Would you... like to explain to me... what the fuck _that_ is?" Delaana pointed a finger at the wound on Shepard's side.  
  
Bowers struggled to speak with Delaana's fingers pressing hard on either side of his mouth. "It... it slipped..."  
  
"I only allowed you to fulfill this fucked-up little fantasy of yours, Bowers, because you _assured_ me, up and down, that you and Roth could control that thing. 'Not a scratch on her,' that was what you said to me, do you remember?"  
  
"Y... yes..." Bowers stammered.  
  
Delaana thrust her finger again toward the wound. "And what the fuck do you call that, you blubbering piece of worthless shit?"  
  
"It's a sc... scratch..."  
  
"Get Shepard and the varren out of here," Delaana said to the rest of the men, while still clutching Bowers's face in her hand. "Get her cleaned and patched up, and put that mutt back in its cage, before I decide to let fuck-up here be its next bitch."  
  
The men were quick to obey their commander, helping the dazed Shepard to her feet and leaving Delaana alone with the terrified Bowers.  
  
"You know what, Bowers?" Delaana said, a vicious smile coming to her face. "You were so hot to see a little varren cum spilled on this ship?"  
  
Turning and dragging Bowers with her, Delaana gripped him by the back of the neck. With a swift motion, Delaana sent Bowers to the floor, face-first into the puddle of varren cum that had leaked out of Shepard. While Bowers groaned in disgust, Delaana worked his face around in the slime.  
  
"Go ahead, Bowers. Enjoy, you sick fuck," Delaana said. And while she continued to mash the human's face into the semen drippings, she looked up and stared directly into the camera.  
  
And that was all it took for Liara to understand. This wasn't an act of mercy on Delaana's part. It wasn't even a chance to punish a subordinate who make a mistake. This was the asari commander's way of reminding Liara who was in charge around here.  
  
"I can put a stop to this sort of thing whenever I want," Delaana's stare into the camera was saying without words. "And if I want, I can make it worse, too. So think about that the next time you embarrass me."  
  
Liara still felt that pure, undiluted hate for Bowers in that moment. But her hate for Delaana ran just as pure.


	7. A Moving Piece

They didn't bring the varren out again.

Not that the next few days were pleasant ones, of course. Liara was somewhat horrified at how their lives had started to fall into a despicable routine: they would wake, and the Shadow Broker would summon one of the two human women to pleasure him. After the chosen toy of the day was returned to their cell, they would wait together in fear. There would be no warning before one or more of the guards would open the door and select their chosen victims for the day. Sometimes they'd take them right there in the cell, other times lead them off to the empty room that had seemingly been set aside for that purpose.

But no matter what, the vidscreen in the cell assured that Liara would see every last minute of it.

Then they would be led to the mess hall for their one meal of the day. Liara supposed that the unidentifiable food they were being fed must have been some high-nutrient mix, else they would have been starving after a few days.

Not that she was hoping for more trips to the mess hall. Because, while there were some days when the guards were either too busy or just couldn't be bothered to come rape Shepard and Miranda in their cell, there was always some new horror awaiting them during their meal. There was a different guard every day stationed to watch them while they ate, and each of them had their own particular fetishes. Okoru pretended to be each woman's lover, whispering seductive words before roughly bending her over and taking her from behind. Yuri, the burnt-faced human, spilled Miranda's food across Shepard's body and made Miranda lick up every drop of the greenish concoction, while he kept Shepard's mouth busy around his cock. The turian – Solvitis, she'd heard one of the humans call him – simply instructed Shepard and Miranda to play with themselves, while he watched in approval.

And Bowers. He made them beg for it. Ordered them to ask him politely to rape them, and then quickly obliged, demanding they thank him afterward as well. And while most of the other guards just went about their business and left, Bowers would be constantly looking over at Liara as he fucked her fellow prisoners, making sure she was watching and yelling to get her attention if she wasn't.

A horrible routine, indeed. But one difference from the first few days of captivity: since she had given Delaana a lesson on classic poetry, Liara hadn't been called to her office since. "Too afraid to be embarrassed again, probably," Liara thought to herself as she was paraded back to her cell after two days with no summons.

And then the wait would begin again. They would all stare into space, Shepard holding onto Liara for comfort, waiting to see if there would be another evening visit from the guards before they drifted off to sleep.

After this pattern held for around six days, the seventh day they were directed to a new area of the ship after their meal.

"Stand here," said the human who waited for them inside what appeared to be a medical bay. Liara recognized him as the first human to rape Miranda on day one of their captivity. "In a line, just like that."

The human waited until all three were in position before walking up to Shepard. Snapping on a pair of rubber gloves, he began running his hands along Shepard's shivering naked body, carefully inspecting every inch of flesh. He muttered to himself as he worked, medical terms that Liara was unfamiliar with flowing out of his mouth. Directing Shepard to spread her legs, he retrieved a speculum and used it to pry open Shepard's labia.

"Yes, yes," the human kept muttering, clinically inspecting Shepard's insides. "No signs of trauma, good. Expected conditions of Bartholin's and Skene's glands, clitoris reacts to outside stimuli within safe parameters." The human medic babbled like a salarian as he inspected Shepard's vagina. Shepard stared straight ahead while the human's gloved fingers poked and prodded inside her, that far-away look in her eyes again.

Finally nodding as if satisfied, the medic stood and retrieved a small jar from a nearby shelf. "Open, please." Shepard obediently opened her mouth, and the medic took a cotton swab from the jar and ran it around inside Shepard's mouth. The cotton thoroughly saturated with saliva, the medic retrieved the swab and put into a small beaker of chemical solution. Whatever reaction he saw caused him to nod and smile. "Great, you're in fine health," he said, putting on his best bedside manner like he wasn't one of the Broker's rapist minions.

The medic walked away to a medicine cabinet, and returned with a bottle of pills. "Hand out," the medic instructed, and Shepard complied. A single pill shook out of the bottle onto her palm. Shepard stared down at it for a moment.

"Take it, please," the medic said, and sighed when Shepard hesitated. "Unless you're looking forward to the idea of bearing one of these men's children, that is. Then by all means, don't take it."

That sent the pill flying into Shepard's mouth, Shepard swallowing it without water.

Finished with Shepard, the medic moved on to Miranda. He conducted the same thorough examination on her, but whatever results he was getting didn't seem to make him as happy. His babbling reached a dizzying speed, as he activated his omnitool while he worked, apparently recording notes for himself as he observed Miranda's body and insides. The cotton swab test brought an especially concerned look to his face, and he quickly snapped off a series of five and six syllable words into his omnitool recorder.

Picking up the pill bottle, the medic was about to ask Miranda to extend her hand, when Miranda shook her head. "It's not necessary," she coolly stated.

The medic was ready to launch into another spiel, when he caught the look in Miranda's eyes and seemed to understand. Shrugging, he turned away from Miranda without a word and stepped over to Liara. Liara took a deep breath, ready to be touched and prodded by this man.

"Any pains or illnesses I should know about?" the medic asked her.

Liara shook her head.

"Alright, then, we're done here," the medic said, motioning them towards the door. "Back to your cell, please."

Liara was confused, but obediently followed Shepard and Miranda out of the medbay.

As they neared the cell, a guard moved in front of Liara. She looked up in horror to see Bowers glowering down at her.

For a moment, he just stared at her menacingly, seeming to enjoy her fear. Finally, Bowers turned around to the human prisoners. "Back to your cell," he ordered. Turning back to Liara, his expression was severe as he said simply, "She wants to see you."

* * *

Liara felt a chill as she stepped into Delaana's office for the first time in days. Her eyes immediately gravitated to the desk, but the asari was not there. Instead, her back was to Liara as she studied the books on her shelf. Stepping carefully, as if making a sudden noise would cause the asari merc leader to attack her, Liara sat down in the seat opposite Delaana's desk.

She sat in silence for several minutes, Delaana saying nothing either. An old-fashioned clock on Delaana's desk ticked away, as Liara waited for whatever was to come.

"You were right."

Liara's eyes snapped up as Delaana finally spoke. The asari turned to face her with a sour expression.

"About that poem," Delaana said, her voice low and drained of emotion. "You were right."

Liara didn't respond. Delaana eventually moved to sit at her desk, leaning back in her chair with her eyes fixed on Liara.

"Her name was Lanora," Delaana said. "The woman that Nessenia loved, and lost. I never knew that... almost all of her poems were about Lanora. Falling in love with her, arguing with her. Even 300 years after Lanora left her... Nessenia's last poems were still all about how much she loved her."

Delaana didn't say anything after that for a while. Until she finally let out a barking laugh that made Liara flinch. "Goddess, how pathetic," Delaana's tone was harsh. "Can't believe I used to look up to that mopey bitch. All those years and still hung up on one woman?" She shot a smirk at Liara. "Well, anyway, thanks for making me realize I was wasting my time."

Liara just looked back at her, not sure what reaction Delaana wanted.

"So, don't suppose there are any other asari poets you know about that aren't writing about pussy they lost, huh?" Delaana asked. "Ones that actually wrote about battles and that sort of thing?"

Furrowing her brow, Liara struggled to remember any of the poets she read for her arts electives during college. "I... uh... Celenius, I believe she wrote pieces on many of the wars of the last few centuries."

Delaana nodded. "Yes, I've read some of her stuff. So, those were actually about wars, right? Not about some bitch that dumped her, huh?"

Liara struggled to keep from laughing at Delaana's ignorance as she answered. "Yes, they were about wars. Celenius would talk to wounded participants of each battle and use their descriptions of the battles for inspiration."

"Ha, why talk to the losers who got injured?" Delaana opined. "You want real battle poetry, talk to the winners, I say. But still, I guess her stuff's okay. So, anyone else?"

"Anyone else what?"

"Any other poets who wrote about interesting stuff? Wars or fighting or exploring the stars?"

For the next half-hour, Liara racked her brain about the poets she could remember. She had never been a huge reader of poetry, but she was able to call to mind several names she had read. Each one was answered with recognition by Delaana; she may not have understood poetry all that much, but she must have read a lot of it. After every name, Delaana would ask about what their poems were really about, and Liara would describe them to the best of her ability.

And while Liara kept talking, in her mind gears were turning. "This woman is lonely," she finally realized as Delaana enthused about yet another poet she'd read. "Makes sense, I suppose; don't imagine a lot of mercs want to discuss the fine arts. You need to use this, Liara. Make her think the two of you are friends, and it might get her to relax her guard, give you an opportunity to figure out a way to escape. Or at the very least, maybe if you get in Delaana's good graces, she'll curb Bowers and the rest of her scum a little."

So Liara tried her best to act relaxed. Even forced a smile once or twice when Delaana would make a terrible, off-color joke. Before she'd even realized it, the clock on Delaana's desk indicated that 90 minutes had passed since she'd entered the office.

"Well, damn, you really know your stuff," Delaana said after Liara finished her layman's analysis of another poet's work. "If I'd had you around to pick your brain years ago, I might not have wasted my time on all this mushy crap." Glancing at the clock, Delaana frowned. "But you'd best be getting back to your cell now, I suppose."

Liara stood, keeping her eyes to the floor deferentially. Had to keep Delaana thinking she was a whipped slave, with no thoughts of resistance or escape.

As she started to turn, Delaana called out. "Before you leave..." she hesitated for a moment, before reaching into a desk drawer and pulling out a datapad. "Here, take this. It's the latest compendium from the Poetry Society of Thessia. Maybe you can go through and pick out some of the better ones for me, keep me from wasting time on shit like the lost Lanora."

Liara stared down at the datapad being extended towards her, unable to keep the confusion off her face. "You want me to read that?"

A hard frown came to Delaana's face. "Or, you know, I could remove your girlfriend's fucking head from her shoulders, if that's what you'd prefer." Quickly, Liara snatched the datapad from the merc's hand, and Delaana's smile returned. "There, was that so hard? Read it tonight, I'm gonna call you back tomorrow and we can go over the best ones, okay?"

Liara nodded, the whole experience reminding her of some twisted homework assignment.

"You can go now," Delaana said, looking down at her desk terminal. As Liara turned to go, Delaana stopped her again.

"Just wanted to ask... 'The Fields of Eternity,'" Delaana said. "The one from Nessenia's twelfth collection. Was that..." Delaana hesitated, looking uncomfortable. "Was that actually about fields? Or was it just her whining about her lost lover some more?"

"Both, actually," Liara responded. "Nessenia met Lenora on the colony of Verdenis. They would visit there every couple of years afterward, and even after Lenora had left her, Nessenia would still go there regularly and wander the grass fields. They even say that's where she died, although that could just be an old legend."

Delaana stared into space. "'Where the green stretches ever onward, forward into eternity's joy,'" she quoted, and then quickly let out a laugh. "Yeah, more sentimental bullshit, I figured. Anyway, get back to your cell, already."

Liara turned and walked out the door, leaving the asari mercenary alone with her new understanding of asari verse.

* * *

Bowers's shift on guard duty had apparently ended during Liara's long conversation with Delaana, as it was the turian Solvitis that was waiting outside of the office when Liara exited. She waited for him to start walking, and followed obediently behind, the datapad of poetry hanging limply in her hand.

When they reached the cell door, Liara waited for Solvitis to open it. But instead, Liara felt the guard tug the datapad out of her grasp.

"Now, what's this?" Solvitis remarked as his talons tapped against the surface of the pad. "Poetry? She gave you poetry?" The turian chuckled as he rapidly pressed buttons on the datapad.

"Yes, she did," Liara firmly stated. "And unless you want to piss her off, you'd better give me that back right now."

The turian scoffed. "Yeah, whatever," he said, but shoved the datapad back into Liara's grasp after a few more seconds of fiddling with it. "Just make sure to read every last word of that pretty little poetry, now. Won't understand the true meaning of it all otherwise." Laughing, he opened the door and waited until Liara had entered before locking the door behind her.

"What happened?" Shepard said, as Liara sat down at the wall beside her. "You were gone for so long, I was worried that..."

"She just talked to me," Liara said, staring down at the datapad in her hands. "About... poetry."

Shepard said nothing to this, but both of them looked over as Miranda quietly muttered. "Poetry." Looking up from the floor, she repeated the word, her voice emotionless and dead. "Poetry. You spent hours talking about poetry."

"Yes, it was..." Liara started to say.

"No, wait just a second," Miranda said, her voice raising slightly. "Let me tell you what we've been up to while you were off discussing poetry. I want to really paint a picture for you here."

Shepard leaned towards Miranda, raising a hand. "Miranda, this isn't..."

"What's that, Shepard?" Miranda snapped at Shepard, her voice now getting loud and somewhat frantic. "This isn't the time, is that what you were going to say? Because I think it's the best time. In fact, I'm having trouble deciding where to begin. I mean, it all started with two of them coming in here and forcing us to suck their cocks, but at this point, hey, what else is new?" Her voice trembling, Miranda's eyes started to glisten. "So maybe we should fast-forward to the part where they turned around and made us eat out their assholes. Oh, and speaking of assholes, that's where their cocks ended up after that. Should I keep going?"

"Miranda, stop," Shepard calmly stated, but Miranda ignored her.

"Why don't you show her, Shepard?" Miranda said. Partially standing, she turned to show her ass to Liara. Liara gasped as she saw the dark red splotchy patch contrasted against Miranda's pale white skin. "Show that asari lover of yours where they spanked your ass until you screamed loud enough to satisfy them, huh? Show her what those fuckers were up to while she was off having a nice discussion about poetry, huh?"

"Miranda!" Shepard said, leaning forward to grab Miranda by the shoulders. Liara didn't want to look, but her eyes naturally gravitated downward. True to Miranda's word, Shepard's ass was just as red and abused as hers.

"No, I'm fucking sick of this!" Miranda said in-between sobs. "I'm sick of fucking pretending like we're not all in this because of her! And while these sick fucks use us like their personal fucktoys, she's off having a friendly chat with the bitch that's in charge of all this! In the last few days I've been raped more times than I've been made love to in my entire life." Tears now streamed down Miranda's face. "And the worst part of it all is that it's all starting to..."

"Stop!" Liara cried out. "I know, I know, it's my fault! And if I could, I'd have them do it all to me! Everything they're doing to both of you, I'd have them do it to me instead if I could, but I can't, okay? I can't, I can't, and I'm so sorry! It should be me suffering, it should be..."

She felt Shepard's arms wrap around her, her cheek against hers. "It's okay, Liara. Nobody's blaming you. We'll make it through this. We've just got to survive for as long as we can."

"Survive until what?" Miranda asked, her voice still quavering. "Until we don't feel it anymore? Until we wa..."

"Stop it!" Shepard firmly said. "That's enough. Let's just keep quiet for a while and calm down. We won't accomplish anything screaming at each other."

Miranda sank back down against the wall, wincing as her abused ass hit the cold steel floor. She still looked angry and panicked, but she remained silent.

For a while, nobody did anything. Then, tentatively, Liara raised the datapad Delaana had given her. "She..." Liara hesitantly announced. "She told me to read all of them before tomorrow. I'm afraid that if I don't, she'll..."

Eyes narrowed, Miranda turned away from Liara and Shepard. "Go ahead and read," Shepard said to Liara. "I'll talk to Miranda."

Liara nodded, and Shepard moved to Miranda's side, leaning in close to whisper encouragement into her ear. Struggling to put the stressful incident behind her, Liara pulled up the poetry compendium and read.

They were all fairly good, but Liara skimmed to look for and bookmark poems about battles, fights, and other adventurous topics she thought Delaana might enjoy. After getting halfway finished, Liara looked up to see that Miranda and Shepard had both dozed off. She sighed, thoughts of the horrible dreams they must have been having making her melancholy all over again.

"Have to finish," Liara said to herself, and she quickly made her way through the rest of the poems. Reaching the last line of the last poem, she pressed the down arrow one more time.

And immediately clapped a hand over her mouth.

"DO NOT REACT, DR. T'SONI. THEY'RE WATCHING." had been manually typed at the end of the poetry text file.

Liara scrolled down again, to find four more words had been entered into the file.

"WE'RE GETTING YOU OUT."


	8. Don't Blow His Cover

"Unh! Unh! Unh!" Miranda grunted with every thrust of the Broker's bulbous hips. She was bent down across his desk, one of his massive three-fingered hands pressed down against her back while his dripping cock thrust in and out of her pussy.  
  
"Give me regular status reports on the construction," the Broker calmly spoke to one of the monitors behind his desk, conducting business even while he ravaged one of his slaves. "I expect everything to be up and running in a month's time. Please impress upon your workers how important it is to meet their deadlines, and how upset I will be should they fail."  
  
"Understood, Shadow Broker," said the voice on the other side of the monitor. "I've also recently recovered some suspicious communications. They're encoded, but with your systems, I don't imagine it would take you more than a few days to decipher."  
  
The Broker nodded. "Send them over at once."  
  
While the Broker conducted his morning "business," Liara leaned back into Shepard embracing her from behind, talking as quietly as she could to still be heard. The Broker was obviously too busy at the moment to be observing them through the live feed from the cell, but there was no guarantee that he might not watch a recording later.  
  
And if what had been written on the datapad had been genuine, Liara knew that it was vitally important to all of them that they weren't heard.  
  
"You're sure it was the turian?" Shepard whispered to her.  
  
"Positive. He was the only one who had access to it. Well, except for Delaana, and I doubt that she has any interest in helping us escape."  
  
Shepard furrowed her brow. "I dunno. Seems like it might be a trap. Or a game they're playing with us to mess with our heads."  
  
"I know. And even if he's genuine, how does he plan to get us out of here? Considering what happened when we tried to take the Broker on..."  
  
A pained expression came to Shepard's face, and Liara instantly regretted recalling the memory of their defeat, and what it had led to. But Shepard recovered quickly. "His note said ' _we're_ getting you out.' Who's we, I wonder? I don't..."  
  
Shepard's words were interrupted when the door slid open, and Solvitis walked in. Liara and Shepard froze, watching as the turian paced back and forth, his eyes never leaving Liara's.  
  
"Well, look at this!" he said, his tone crude as he stared down at their naked bodies. "Two little lovebirds." Walking slowly up to them, he crouched down next to them on the floor. "Do everything I say. Don't stop to question," he said in a low voice. "I'm sorry, but this is the only we're going to be able to do this without them getting suspicious."  
  
Standing back up, he raised his voice. "How about you two sweethearts give me a little sample of what you used to do before we collared you, huh?" Pointing down at Shepard, he gestured down at Liara's hips. "You heard me. Put your tongue to work on that little asari slut of yours! Make her moan just like you used to on the Normandy." Pointing to the center of the cell, he clucked his tongue. "Right here, let me get a good look at you both."  
  
Numbly, the two women obeyed. Liara moved away from the wall and spread her legs, not meeting Shepard's eyes as her lover laid down on her stomach and wrapped her arms around Liara's thighs.  
  
"Damn, that's hot," Solvitis loudly stated, while his eyes gravitated to the vidscreen. Liara knew what he was hoping to see, but the camera had now pulled into a close-up on Miranda's panting face. The camera in the Broker's office seemed to detect when one of the Broker's henchmen was in their cell, and made sure never to catch a glimpse of the Broker himself until they had left. Only the Broker's slaves got the distinct non-pleasure of seeing his horrific true face, Liara reasoned.  
  
Disappointed in his desire to solve the mystery of the Shadow Broker, Solvitis walked around to stand behind Liara, while Shepard put her head between Liara's legs. "I gotta get down close to watch this." Crouching down behind Liara, he put his head next to the side of hers, pretending to be watching the action between Liara's thighs.

"Just keep up the act," Solvitis whispered. "As long as they think I'm using the two of you to get off, they won't disturb us."  
  
Liara was going to relay the message to Shepard, but it wasn't required: like the last time, Shepard needed no prodding to start energetically working her tongue along and inside her lover's opening. "Dammit, Shepard, you don't have to do it for real," she thought, squirming at the unwanted arousal that was starting to build from Shepard's oral efforts.  
  
Forcing herself to ignore it, she whispered back to Solvitis. "Who are you? And how can you get us out of here?"  
  
"Who I am is a dead man," Solvitis muttered. "Who I was, that's the important question." Liara could detect a change in his voice, the sadistic glee of a torturer vanishing. He sounded tired as he spoke softly to her. "Used to be a C-Sec operative, years ago. Was undercover in the Blue Suns with a friend of mine, trying to figure out who was smuggling arms into the Lower Wards, when somehow we got found out. They took my partner out, and left me bleeding next to the body. Guess I had more fight in me than they thought."  
  
"Oh, god," Miranda cried out on the screen, as the pace of the Broker's thrusts increased, her body shaking with every rough penetration. Liara thought about Solvitis, the turian probably wondering who, or what, was raping the naked human. Whatever he had in mind, Liara imagined he wasn't even close.  
  
"Yeah, look at that human bitch squeal," Solvitis raised his voice as he glanced up at the vidscreen. Looking back down at the head bobbing between Liara's thighs, he let out an aroused noise, almost like the purr of a cat. "Use your fingers on her. Make her moan just like that little slut up on the screen."   
  
Liara wished she could tell him to tone it down a bit, but Shepard was already obeying his instructions. Liara felt her nipples start to stiffen as Shepard managed to hit every last one of her erogenous zones.  
  
Lowering his voice again, Solvitis continued his story. "C-Sec declared me missing, presumed dead. And considering what I had in mind, I was fine with that. Took a while, but I tracked down the guys who shot me and my partner, and after some... 'persuasion,' I found out that the Shadow Broker sold the Suns a list of undercover operatives."  
  
"So you went undercover again," Liara said quietly.  
  
Solvitis nodded. "Found a few other guys who'd been burnt by the Broker, and we formed ourselves a little revenge club, I guess you'd call it. Built up fake identities as the worst of the worst in the mercenary business, trying to catch the Broker's eye. After a couple of years, I was finally able to work my way into Delaana's company. And that brings up to this ship, and me figuring out how I'm to get you three out of here and kill the Shadow Broker."  
  
Liara was dubious. Something about it all seemed too tidy. "So, how exactly to you plan to get us... us... oohhhhhh!" Liara winced as the combination of Shepard's tongue and digits brought her to a forced climax. Her hips spasmed in pleasure as Shepard licked up her dripping juices.  
  
"Really getting into the part down there, huh?" Solvitis said with a slight chuckle which quickly died in his throat. "Sorry about that... and tell Miss Lawson I'm sorry, too. I've been trying to stay away from you all as much as possible, but if I didn't participate at least a little, they'd start to get suspicious."  
  
Liara took a deep breath, recovering after her orgasm. "So, how are you going to get us out of here?"  
  
Solvitis started to speak, only to be stopped by the unmistakable sound of the Broker's aroused grunting on the vidscreen. As the Broker pulled out of Miranda, she automatically dropped to her knees in front of him, quivering as he jerked his huge prick towards her face.

"Shit, not much time left," Solvitis hissed. Liara heard him gasp as the camera shifted a little, enough to momentarily show the head of the Broker's massive cock. "Damn, what the hell is... never mind. I'm working on a way to get you all out, but it might take some time. I need to send a message to my men, and the Broker keeps communications locked down tight. But I worked tech back in C-Sec, and I know that no matter how tight a system's security measures are, there's always a hole."  
  
"What can we do to help?" Liara asked him.  
  
Solvitis paused, his tone regretful when he finally spoke. "I hate to put it like this, but in your current position, not much. Just don't do anything unusual. Act like the Broker has beaten you, that you've lost all hope and have no thoughts of escaping. Play the parts, and maybe it'll cause them to lower their guards a bit. You think you can all do that?"  
  
Sighing, Liara nodded. "I think we've gotten a lot of practice in acting like we've been defeated and lost all hope," she said, as her eyes were drawn to Miranda waiting for the Broker's load to begin spilling out across her bare skin.  
  
"I'm going to do everything I can to get you three out of here, I promise," Solvitis assured her. "And after we're clear of this ship, we'll bring back as many guns as possible to rip this fucker a new asshole, or cloaca or whatever he's got."  
  
On the vidscreen, Miranda flinched as the Broker's cum spilled out onto her face and tits. "Open your mouth," he ordered her, and fired his last few spurts down her throat. Miranda coughed and gagged, but managed to swallow it down.   
  
"Th... thank you, Master," Miranda meekly stated, and Liara shuddered. Over the last few days, the Broker had been instructing Shepard and Miranda to "address your owner properly." The first time Liara had heard Shepard address that monstrosity as "Master," she'd wanted to die.  
  
"Yeah, look at her. Just as horny as you two little sluts," Solvitis exclaimed as he rose to his feet. "Wish I had time to have you put that tongue to work on me, Shepard, but I've gotta get back on duty. You two don't have too much fun without me, now!"  
  
The turian left, and Liara stopped to consider what had just happened. It wasn't until she felt Shepard's tongue between her legs again that she remembered the position they were both in.  
  
"Shepard!" Liara hissed. "Shepard, he's gone. You can stop now."  
  
Looking up at Liara, Shepard blinked. "What? Oh... oh, right. Sorry. Guess I got carried away a little." Pulling hesitantly away from Liara's moist crotch, Shepard returned to embrace Liara from behind, their heads close together to allow for quiet conversation.  
  
"What do you think, Shepard?" Liara asked her.  
  
"Can't say for sure," Shepard said, stroking her fingers lightly across Liara's stomach. "But from what I could hear, it seemed like maybe he's on the level."  
  
Liara reached down to place her hand on top of Shepard's. "I'm willing to trust him, for now. And it's not like we've got much of a choice."  
  
"'Play the parts,'" Shepard quoted Solvitis's words. "I think I..."  
  
Shepard didn't speak for a few seconds, and Liara was turning to see her face, when the cell door opened. Miranda stepped into the cell, body still glistening from the shower. "I'll fill Miranda in," Shepard said, reluctantly removing her arms from around Liara and moving toward the wall Miranda was sitting against.  
  
While Shepard and Miranda talked quietly, their heads leaned close together and their words to each other inaudible, Liara looked down at the datapad of poems. Now, she realized, it was more important than ever to keep Delaana happy. The rest of these men were morons, more suited to busting other people's heads open than using their own. But not Delaana. She might not have been book-smart, but Liara could see the craftiness in her eyes. An asari doesn't get to be in charge of a group of trained thugs like these just by shaking her ass and winking at them. If Liara said one wrong word, betrayed any hint that something was going on, their escape plan was sunk.  
  
"Shepard and Miranda have their parts to play, horrible as they may be," Liara thought to herself. "And now I've got mine, too."

* * *  
  
They were called to the mess hall not long after that, Glyph leading them on the now-familiar route. Liara brought the datapad with her, expecting her summons from Delaana after the meal.  
  
Once they were seated in their usual positions – Shepard and Miranda together and Liara off by herself – it was Solvitis who brought in their meals. A tray with two plates put down in front of Shepard and Miranda, and then Liara's separate plate in front of her.  
  
While they ate, Liara snuck glances at the turian guard. Could she really trust him? His story seemed genuine, but there was something strange. She didn't get to be where she had been on Illium without learning how to read people, and Solvitis had definitely been holding something back when he'd told the story of his C-Sec days. But why would he lie? Was it because the whole thing was a fake, or was it something else?  
  
"Hey!" Solvitis suddenly barked out, and Liara flinched. "What the hell are you staring at?"  
  
"Nothing," Liara quickly said, returning her gaze to the plate in front of her. Like Solvitis had requested, she played the part of the obedient, defeated slave.  
  
She heard Solvitis's footsteps approaching, and he yanked away the chair opposite Liara's and stood opposite her at the table. "You thinking about trying something, huh, bitch?" he snarled at her. "Thinking about using those biotics on me?"  
  
"I wasn't," Liara quickly answered.  
  
"Good, because I think you know what would happen if you did. But just in case, let me explain to you just what I'd do to you and your little human friends if you tried a stunt like that." Leaning over the table and getting right in her face, he whispered. "Look scared, act like I'm threatening you."  
  
Liara widened her eyes, gaping her mouth open at the threats that Solvitis was pretending to deliver.  
  
"So... whatever the Broker is, he's obviously a big son of a bitch, if what he's got between his legs is any indication" Solvitis muttered softly. "Makes me wonder if we two and my team are even gonna be enough to take him out. What exactly is he, some kind of... never mind. If you talk, it's going to give away what's going on."  
  
While still maintaining her fearful expression, Liara quietly grabbed the datapad that she had laid on the chair next to her. Pulling up a blank page, she typed quickly, without breaking eye contact with Solvitis, and laid the pad back onto the chair, in a place where Solvitis could see it but it would be out of range of the camera pivoting back and forth in the corner.  
  
"A YAHG. GIANT PREDATOR SPECIES. 8 FEET TALL, PARTIALLY ARMORED SKIN. VERY DANGEROUS."  
  
Solvitis slipped from his villain character for just a second, chuckling. "Crafty," he whispered to her in admiration. "Guess I should have figured it would have been something like that, to defeat the legendary Commander Shepard. Hey!" he suddenly shouted. "Are you listening to me, bitch?"  
  
Liara frantically nodded. Her fear was only partially faked; even though she knew that Solvitis was on their side, or at least was claiming to be, having a shouting turian right in your face was still a terrifying experience.  
  
"Look, I managed to pull some strings to get put on guard duty for you ladies today," Solvitis whispered. "But I'm afraid it might be a while before I can be in here again. Like I said, I'm working on an escape plan, but it's gonna take time. So, I'm afraid Bowers and the rest of them will be..."  
  
Grabbing the datapad, Liara typed again and returned the message back to the chair.  
  
"I UNDERSTAND. WE APPRECIATE WHAT YOU'RE DOING."  
  
"Don't thank me yet," Solvitis muttered. He started to stand up straight, but paused as Liara began typing another message.  
  
"WHAT AREN'T YOU TELLING ME?"  
  
"You think I'm joking?" Solvitis snarled at her, moving his face to within inches of hers. "You think you can play games with me?"  
  
Liara shook her head. There was something in Solvitis's eyes at that moment, an anger that wasn't entirely faked.   
  
"Look, it's not important," Solvitis hissed at her quietly. "Just keep..."

The door to the mess hall suddenly slid open. "Hey, Solly, what the fuck?" snarled Grell, the batarian walking over to the two humans. "I agree to trade mess hall duty with you, and you're spending the whole time just snarling at the asari bitch? Shit, by now I would have thought you'd be buried to the hilt in one of these fine pieces of ass."  
  
Solvitis turned toward Grell, putting that aggressive snarl back into his voice. "I was about to. Was just educating the good doctor here on all the nasty things I was gonna make her precious girlfriend do to me. So clear out, huh?"  
  
"Shit, last I checked, you turians only had one prick," Grell said. Leaning down behind Miranda, he reached around to roughly grab her tits. "And I think this little human supremacist bitch is just aching for some stiff batarian cock. Ain't that right?"  
  
Staring down at her plate of olive-colored slop, Grell's fingers gripping her breasts hard enough to leave bruises, Miranda nodded. "I... I want your cock," she said, her face filled with shame. "I want you to fuck me."  
  
Grell let out a snarling laugh. "I knew it. Always the same with human slaves: they'll whimper and cry for a while, but eventually they all end up begging for it." Glancing over Miranda's shoulder at Shepard, he removed one hand from her tit to point over at Solvitis. "How about you go give my buddy a good time, you murdering bitch? While I show your friend here what she's been missing out on with all these pathetic humans fucking her."  
  
As Shepard rose numbly to her feet, and Grell started unzipping his pants, Solvitis started to look uncomfortable. He looked back at Liara, his eyes filled with an apology for what he knew was about to come.  
  
Sinking to her knees, Shepard slowly unfastened Solvitis's belt. His pants fell to the floor, and Solvitis sat back on the edge of the table, inches away from where Liara's plate was resting.  
  
"Y...yeah," Solvitis loudly encouraged Shepard, with the slightest of tremors in his voice. "Do it to me, baby."  
  
But Liara could see that his penis hadn't emerged from its sheath. A look of panic was starting to show in Solvitis's eyes, as he stared down at Shepard kneeling between his legs and stroking a thumb against the thin gap in the plating covering his manhood.  
  
From the other table, Liara could hear the wet smacking of lips, as Miranda bobbed her head on Grell's green shaft. His sharp teeth bared in a grin, Grell looked over at Solvitis and barked out a laugh. "What's the matter, Solly?" he asked. "Feeling a little inadequate over there?"  
  
"Hey, the best things in life are worth waiting for," Solvitis awkwardly joked. Meanwhile, Shepard's attempts to arouse Solvitis had managed to cause the head of his cock to emerge from his plating. Shepard looked up at him and gave him a weak smile.  
  
"Come on," she quietly said to him, trying not to be heard over the sounds of Miranda sucking and Grell groaning. "Get that cock hard for me, Solvitis. Don't want anybody getting suspicious, do we?" Sticking out her tongue, she flicked it up and down the blue tip of the turian's manhood.  
  
Solvitis's eyes squeezed shut, and his long, ridged manhood seemed to almost erupt from between his legs. Shepard wasted no time taking the alien cock into her mouth, Solvitis letting out strained groans as Shepard's lips and tongue went to work on his shaft.  
  
"Ha! Look at the little whore suck!" Grell observed. Placing a hand on Miranda's forehead, he lightly pushed her away from his cock. "Alright, human, enough foreplay. Come over here..."  
  
Liara could hear low growls of arousal coming from Solvitis, as Shepard lavished attention on his shaft. Watching it, Liara felt something building inside her. A strange sensation that it took her a while to identify.  
  
Jealousy.

"Oooh, you're getting so hard," Shepard softly said, as she stroked up and down the turian's shaft. "You going to put this thing inside me, huh? I know you want to. You want to fuck me so hard, don't you?"  
  
Intellectually, Liara knew what Shepard was doing. If Solvitis was going to keep his cover, he was going to need to make use of the "slaves" just as much as the others did. So Shepard was trying to help him keep his identity secret the only way she could: by getting him off as quickly as possible. Liara was sure that Shepard didn't mean any of the things that she was saying.  
  
But that didn't make it any less painful to hear Shepard softly urging Solvitis, vulgarly describing what she wanted the turian to do to her in between working her tongue along the length of his cock. After a few minutes of this, Shepard stood up, gently trading positions with him and hopping up onto the table. Her legs spread, she urged Solvitis forward with a finger, putting a lustful gleam into her eyes.  
  
Solvitis was hesitant at first, but soon Shepard's legs were wrapped around the turian's hips as his dark-blue cock buried itself inside her. The two of them were fucking right in front of Liara on the table, her silverware clattering with every hard thrust of Solvitis's hips. Reaching up, Shepard gripped Solvitis by the fringe and drew his face close to hers. "Fuck me," she quietly urged him. "You feel so good inside me. I want to feel your cum filling me."  
  
Liara had to look away from the obscene display in front of her, but her aside glance immediately fell on the other carnal activity in the mess hall. Grell had taken Miranda's place in her chair, and Miranda was riding on top of him. She let out pained moans as she worked her ass up and down the batarian's shaft, Grell's fingers gripping her behind and encouraging her to ride him harder.  
  
"Yes, yes, yes," Shepard moaned, and it took a second for Liara to realize that she wasn't whispering anymore. "Fuck me! Fill me up with your cum!"  
  
His head snapping back, Solvitis let out a deep growl, his thrusts stopping with his cock completely inside of Shepard. His breath was loud and raspy as he pulled out of Shepard, his limp and satisfied cock receding back into his body. Shepard laid back on the table, panting and coated with sweat. She looked over at Liara, but Liara wouldn't meet her gaze.  
  
"Damn, Solly," Grell said in admiration, Miranda now kneeling between his legs and jerking his prick towards her face. "Guess that bitch finally got sick of blue pussy, huh?"  
  
Solvitis let out a forced laugh. "Yeah, she's definitely turned into an obedient little slut," he said, while he looked at Liara with a silent apology on his face.   
  
"Aw, fuck," Grell moaned, and Miranda opened her mouth to take the batarian's load down her throat. "Just like I said: just gotta show these human bitches their place, and they fall right in line." Once Miranda had sucked up the last drop of his cum, he stood up and tucked away his flaccid member. "I gotta get back on duty. Make sure they finish their meals before taking them back. Strict instruction from the boss. Guess she doesn't want them starving themselves to death or something, I dunno."  
  
Shepard and Miranda returned to their seats, picking up their forks and continuing to eat as if nothing had happened. Liara, meanwhile, turned her head away from them, so they wouldn't see the tears that were forming in her eyes.


	9. Dreams of Love, and the Harsh Reality

Liara kept her eyes on the floor as they walked back to the cell. She couldn't look at Shepard right now. Couldn't see her without remembering that hungry look in her eyes. Without imagining her with Solvitis between her legs, thrusting as she moaned.  
  
It was almost a relief when Yuri stopped them and, as expected, led Liara to Delaana's office. Right about now, she needed to be away from Shepard, even if the alternate was to visit with the woman who was in charge of breaking her and her comrades.  
  
"Ah, good," Delaana said as the door opened. "Have a seat. Did you get a chance to read those poems?"  
  
A moment of panic filled her. Suddenly she was positive that she had forgotten to delete the messages she had been sending to Solvitis during the meal. But after going back through her memories, she assured herself that she had. Handing over the datapad, she took her usual seat opposite Delaana's desk.  
  
"Hmm, yes," Delaana mused, almost to herself, as she paged through the document. "Ah, Belessa, I've read her before. Her early work was dull, but she definitely improved when she became a matron." Delaana offered critiques on all of Liara's selections, most of them positive. As she turned another page, her expression went slack. "Why... you sneaky little bitch."  
  
Liara felt herself tense up. No, she had deleted the message. She was sure of it. "What are you talking about?"  
  
"You really thought you could get away with it, didn't you?" Delaana tapped the surface of the datapad with a serious expression. "But I'm on to your little game, Dr. T'Soni."  
  
Turning the pad to face Liara, Delaana smirked. "'The Bite of the Serpent' by Lexia D'Lentis? A poem about the Battle of the Citadel? You just couldn't resist giving your ego a little boost, could you?"  
  
"It's... about the Battle of the Citadel?" Liara innocently replied. "I wasn't aware. I suppose I must not have understood the metaphor."  
  
This caused Delaana to erupt into laughter. "Oh, Goddess, you're kidding me! You didn't realize that poem was about the battle that _you_ were actually _in_? Amazing, absolutely amazing!"  
  
Liara tried her best to look embarrassed. The truth, though, was that she knew damn well what the poem was about. But she wasn't going to let this opportunity to make Delaana feel superior to her pass her by. The more she underestimated Liara, the less likely she'd be able to prevent their escape.  
  
"Hell, why would I need to read a poem about the battle, when I've got an illustrious, decorated veteran of it right here in front of me?" Delaana filled her voice with overblown pomp, as she gestured grandiosely at the nude, humbled asari in front of her. "So, what was it like, facing down that giant geth warship, huh? Seeing it barrel through all those warships like they were nothing but toys?"  
  
"It wasn't a geth warship," Liara stated. "It was a..."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, one of an ancient race of prothean legends come to destroy us all," Delaana scoffed. "Just because you fuck Shepard doesn't mean you have to believe all her delusions."  
  
But Liara was adamant. "If you'd seen what I've seen, you'd realize what they truly are."  
  
"Well, that could be arranged," Delaana said, moving forward and raising her hands to grip Liara's face. Liara shrank away in fear, before Delaana laughed and sat back down. "Nah, boss says I'm still not supposed to do anything to you."  
  
"And what are your instructions regarding Shepard and Miranda?"  
  
Delaana narrowed her eyes. "How about you let that remain my business, huh, pet? Don't forget that you're here at _my_ pleasure, to answer _my_ questions. This isn't one of those 'mutually beneficial' relationships, you get me?"  
  
"I apologize," Liara said, and this brought out another one of Delaana's frequent laughs.

"Oh, don't you go pulling that whipped varren look on me," Delaana said with a snicker. "Fine, you want to know the truth? Boss says my orders regarding your fellow prisoners is to let my men do whatever the fuck they want to them, as long as it doesn't cause any serious injury or scarring, until he tells me otherwise. There, that's the big secret. Don't let them touch you, and have them touch the ever-loving shit out of your friends. Preferably with their cocks."  
  
It was getting increasingly hard to stay level-headed around this woman. "To what end? What does he hope to accomplish?"  
  
"What the hell are you asking me for? You're the one who managed to track him down; I figure you know a lot more about him than I do. I just take his money and follow his orders."  
  
Liara stared up at Delaana. "And don't you ever get sick of that? Following somebody else's orders?"  
  
She expected a harsh comeback, but Delaana just let out a pained groan. "Unfortunately, you don't have a lot of options when you're a fugitive Ardat-Yakshi." Delaana stared at Liara with a scornful expression. "I'm afraid not all purebloods are as lucky as you are, Dr. T'Soni. Born a normal, healthy asari to a wealthy and powerful Matriarch, handed everything in life on a silver platter. I had to fight and bleed for every last credit, do things I never thought I'd sink to just to survive."  
  
"Like supervise the systematic rape and torture of prisoners," Liara responded.  
  
Delaana stared back at her with narrowed, angry eyes. After a tense silence, she finally said, "I wouldn't expect a privileged little bitch like yourself to understand what it means to have no options left. When it comes down to you and her, and you're not willing to stoop as low, to sink as deep into the muck as she is, then she lives, and you die. In the world I live in, that's just how it works."  
  
Liara cursed herself for her big mouth. She was supposed to be pretending to be Delaana's friend. Put her at ease, make her think Liara wasn't a threat. Instead, it seemed like she was doing everything she could to antagonize her.  
  
Standing up, Delaana walked over to her shelf of ancient books. Pulling one down, she turned back to Liara. "You remember that poem I asked you about? 'The Fields of Eternity?' It was one of the first poems I ever read. I was only 40 then, just starting to feel those changes that come with maidenhood. I would read that poem, and just close my eyes and think about those fields. Dreaming about the day when I would be old enough to leave home and travel the stars. Find green fields just like Nessenia wrote about. And as I sat and stared out into those fields, that seemed to go on forever, she'd come and sit down next to me. The woman I'd fall in love with, who would lay with me at night and meld with me, who would bear..."  
  
Turning abruptly away from Liara, Delaana slammed the book back into his spot on the shelf, hard enough to shake the rest of the tomes. She stood there for a while, her head bent forward, her shoulders slumped. When she finally turned around, her eyes were hard and cold.  
  
"But turns out, life doesn't give you happy endings like that," Delaana said, her voice emotionless. Looking down at Liara, naked in her slave collar, she smirked. "But then again, I guess I don't need to fucking tell you that, do I?"  
  
Moving to her desk, Delaana hit the intercom. "Take her back. We're done here."

* * *  
  
Yuri closed the door behind Liara as she stepped into the cell. From the looks of things, Shepard and Miranda hadn't had any unwelcome visitors while Liara was away.  
  
Liara sat against the wall perpendicular to the one Shepard had chosen. She felt Shepard move to put her arms around her, and brusquely shoved them away. Shepard looked confused, and leaned her head in close for them to whisper.  
  
"What's wrong?" Shepard asked. "Did she do something to you?"  
  
Liara glowered. "No, she didn't."  
  
"So what's the matter, then?"  
  
Part of her didn't want to say anything, but she knew that she had to get this off her chest. Liara turned to look into Shepard's eyes. "What happened in the mess hall... that was all just an act, right?"  
  
"Liara!" Shepard seemed surprised at the question. "Of course it was. You really thought I was enjoying that? That I liked getting screwed on a damn table with you and everyone watching?"  
  
"You did seem _very_ convincing," Liara said scornfully.  
  
"Come on, Liara, don't do this," Shepard said. "I had to help Solvitis keep his cover. He's our only hope of getting out of here, you know that. I could tell he needed encouragement, so I did what I could. It was just an act, trust me." She smiled at Liara, trying to mollify her. "Come on, you don't think that I got one look at that turian and fell head-over-heels for him, do you?"  
  
"It wouldn't be the first time."  
  
And there it was.   
  
Shepard's smile went away immediately. "Liara, please. Tell me we're not doing this here."  
  
"Why the hell not?" Liara asked, her voice quavering. "There's no guarantee we'll ever get the chance to again."  
  
"Liara, what happened between me and Garrus... it was a moment of weakness. After we got back from beating the Shadow Broker, I was going to break it off with him, I swear."  
  
Liara should have left it at that, but the hurt was still too fresh. "Tell me something, Shepard. When the two of you were in bed, did you moan just like you did in that mess hall? Did you use those same filthy words to make him cum for you?"  
  
Shepard's brow furrowed. "Dammit, Liara, I told you. What I was doing in the mess hall was just an act. You know, just like you were acting like a dangerous and powerful information broker when I found you. Which, considering where we are now, that was all a big damn lie, too."  
  
The words cut deep into Liara, and Shepard immediately saw it in her face, knew that she had gone too far.   
  
"Liara, hey..." Shepard softly said, but Liara was already moving out of hearing range. Shepard started to make motions to move close again, but seeing the look in Liara's eyes, she stopped and stayed where she was. Her eyes were filled with regret, but Liara wasn't interested in Shepard's apologies right now.  
  
Every time she shut her eyes, her mind sent her back to that mess hall. Only instead of Solvitis between Shepard's legs, it was somebody she had thought was her friend. And their ecstatic cries were the cruelest of taunts.


	10. Sick Bastard

The memory of what happened was still fresh on her mind when Liara woke up the next morning. Or she assumed it was the morning. Out in space, with no clocks or any way to determine the passage of time, she had no idea how long they had all been there. Liara understood that this was part of the torture: to immerse them in this horrific experience, not knowing how long it had lasted so far, or how long it would continue.  
  
But Liara forced herself to stay strong. And for the first morning in a long time, she was waking up with hope. She had no idea how Solvitis planned to free them from the clutches of the Shadow Broker, but he was going to try, and that was more promise for their rescue than they'd had since this all started.  
  
Thinking about Solvitis, though, just reminded her of what had happened yesterday. When she had opened her eyes, Shepard was already awake, and staring over at her with sad, hopeful eyes.   
  
But Liara looked away. This whole experience was bringing back the pain she thought she had buried months ago, when one of her surveillance feeds had caught a glimpse of Shepard and Garrus sharing dinner together. From the way they had acted around each other, and the way Shepard had rested her hand on Garrus's, it was obviously not just a friendly meal between comrades.  
  
Part of her, a small part, wanted to forgive Shepard for it. Shepard was getting ready to head into the Omega 4 relay at the time, and chances were she thought the odds of her making it out alive were slim. Meanwhile, Liara was light-years away, too busy chasing her foolish revenge against the Shadow Broker to join Shepard in her mission. If Liara had just gone with Shepard like she had asked, chances are her lover wouldn't have been forced to find comfort in the arms of another.  
  
But Shepard had still cheated on her, and while she had blocked it out before for the sake of the mission, she couldn't force herself to pretend anymore. The images of Shepard being fucked by that turian, even if it wasn't actually Garrus, brought everything she had tried to pretend hadn't happened into the harsh light of day.  
  
So despite Shepard's silent pleas for forgiveness, Liara looked away. Right now, she needed time to herself, to think things through. Maybe she could forget, bury it like she had before. But even if they did make it out of this horrible situation alive, she wasn't sure if her relationship with Shepard would ever be the same again.  
  
The time passed slowly, and Liara was surprised when neither of her fellow captives were called in to service the Shadow Broker. Was he busy with some other task, or had he tired of his human pets? Liara should have felt relieved that she wouldn't have to watch her friends get violated by that beast today, but instead it made her dread the thought that something even more disgusting would be awaiting them in the hours to come.  
  
Eventually, after a long period of sitting in silence, the door opened and Glyph drifted inside. "All of you, please come with me. It is time for you to eat."  
  
They shuffled after the drone, heads bowed. Sensing a presence as she walked, Liara looked up to see Solvitis standing outside of the mess hall. She struggled to keep her expression neutral, not knowing who else might be watching. For his part, Solvitis stared at her callously, still playing the role of the vicious mercenary.  
  
As she passed him, she suddenly felt a sharp sting on the flesh of her thigh. She looked down to see a single drop of blue blood clinging to her leg. What the hell was that? She looked back at Solvitis, but he had quickly looked away, his hand retreating behind him before she could see what he had pricked her with.  
  
Once inside the mess hall, Liara shuffled to her usual seat, while Shepard and Miranda sat across from each other at another table. Who would be the one to serve them today? Solvitis had told her that he wouldn't be on mess hall duty for a while, so it would be one of the others, eager to play with their favorite toys while they ate. The three of them sat in silence, nervously waiting for the food, and its server, to arrive.  
  
"No," Liara muttered under her breath as the door opened, and a familiar human with a green mohawk walked in the door.

Bowers wore a sour expression as he roughly tossed the tray with two plates in front of Shepard and Miranda. There was a loud bang that made all of them jump when Liara's tray hit the table, the bowl of stew or whatever it was nearly spilling over from the impact.  
  
Frowning, Bowers walked back to Shepard and Miranda's table, and sat himself down next to Miranda. Resting his chin on his clenched fists, he stared across the table at Shepard, who tried her best to ignore his angry glare.  
  
For about half of their meal, he just sat there, all of them trying to ignore him and eat quickly. Finally, he spoke up, his voice low and dangerous. "I just want you to know, that you've hurt my feelings, Shepard" he said, glaring menacingly at her.  
  
None of them spoke, worried about provoking the vicious human further. He pounded his fist into the table to draw their attention. "Hey! You hear me, Shepard? What did I ever do to you, to deserve this kind of treatment, huh?"  
  
When it appeared that Bowers was waiting for an answer, Shepard stammered nervously. "I... I don't know what I've done, but I'm sorry."  
  
"Don't you play coy with me, bitch! You know exactly what you've done!" Bowers reached down to activate his omnitool. "Solvitis, get your ass in here, now!"  
  
Within seconds, the door to the mess hall opened, and Solvitis entered. "What's going on?" he asked innocently.  
  
"So, what's your secret, huh?" Bowers said, standing up and walking over to stand in front of Solvitis. "How'd you get Shepard begging for your cock like Grell told me she did?" Turning to Shepard, he gave her an insulted expression. "For so long now, I've been treating you so well. Bringing you your food, giving you the privilege... the _privilege_ of sucking my cock. Fucking you like the little whore you are. And do I ever hear, 'Oh, thank you, Bowers! Thank you for being so kind to me, for giving me all the cock I could ever want!' Do I ever hear you moan and beg like you did for this turian's cock over here?"  
  
Bending over the table, Bowers reached up a hand to grab Shepard under the chin. "What, Shepard? Am I just not good enough for you? You don't think I'm handsome, is that what it is?"  
  
Shepard tried to shake her head, but Bowers's grip was tight. "No," she said.  
  
"So it's not me, then, is it?" Bowers said. "Oh. Ooohhh, I get it now," Bowers released his grip on Shepard and gave her a rueful smile. "You're one of _those_ bitches, aren't you? Fucks a few aliens and decides humans aren't good enough for her anymore. You fucking little race traitor, you."  
  
Stepping around the table, Bowers grabbed a handful of Miranda's hair and yanked her painfully to her feet. "If there's anything I hate more than fucking asari, it's a filthy little race traitor. You know what I'm talking about, right, Miranda?" Leaning in close, he spoke softly into her ear. "That's why you joined Cerberus, isn't it? Get away from all these filthy aliens and have all those tasty human cocks around to suck. Isn't that right?"  
  
"Yes," Miranda quickly agreed, tears coming to her eyes from the pain of Bowers pulling on her hair.   
  
Bowers nodded. "Yeah, I knew it. Bet that's how you earned your spot as the Illusive Man's right-hand bitch: down on your knees with his prick down your throat." Releasing Miranda's hair, Bowers put a hand on her shoulder and pressed her down to her knees. "Why don't you show me the skills that made you such a top Cerberus operative, huh?"  
  
As Miranda got to work on opening Bowers's fly, he smirked at Shepard. "I've decided, Shepard. If you're going to be such an anti-human bitch, I'm not going to give you the privilege of having me fuck you anymore." Holding up a hand, he clucked his tongue. "No, no amount of begging is going to change my mind. You like turian cock so much, you'll just have to settle for that from now on," he turned to Solvitis. "Solly, buddy, how about you give that race traitor bitch what she's hungry for, huh?"  
  
Solvitis shook his head. "Nah, not today. Wouldn't want her to miss this chance to get a good look at what she's missing out on."

"Shit, you know you're right," Bowers said, pulling Miranda away from his exposed cock and up on her feet. "Hear that? Help me show Shepard just how badly she's fucked up." Turning her around, he bent Miranda over the table so that she was facing Shepard in her seat. "When I stick my cock in you, I want you to tell her just how good it feels. Be really persuasive, or I might decide you're a race traitor too, and give you to the varren instead."  
  
Taking hold of Miranda's backside, Bowers slowly entered her. Miranda, looking nervous since the mention of the varren, quickly started cooing. "Oh, it's so good," she murmured, trying her best to sound convincing.  
  
"What's good, huh?" Bowers said, as she sunk himself deeper inside her. "Tell Shepard, what am I doing to you right now, huh?"  
  
"He's fucking me, Shepard," Miranda said, her voice low and throaty as she raised herself up on her hands to lean on the table, spreading her legs slightly. "His cock is inside me, and it feels wonderful." She forced a smile to her face. "Fuck me, Bowers. Fuck me like the Illusive Man used to fuck me. Make me your bitch."  
  
Liara didn't want to watch, but feared she'd be reprimanded if she looked away. Bowers began pumping in and out of Miranda's pussy, while Miranda put on the performance of a lifetime, moaning and begging for more. Her tits bounced with every one of Bowers's hard thrusts inside her, and she tossed her hair back and forth in a simulation of ecstasy.  
  
Desperate to look at anything else, Liara glanced over at Solvitis, watching with a blank expression. Seeing Liara staring, he looked over at her, and then down at her near-empty plate. Nodding, he looked away and back to the carnal activity.  
  
"God, it's so fucking good," Miranda moaned, grunting in time with the sound of Bowers's hips slapping against hers. "I love it, I love your cock inside me! I'm gonna cum, I'm gonna..."  
  
Liara's eyes snapped over to Shepard, at the sound of her chair roughly being pushed away from the table. Solvitis tensed, and the noise even took Bowers's attention away from his current activities.  
  
"Hey, what do you think you're..." Bowers started to say as he looked up from Miranda, and then his threats died in his throat.  
  
"Oooh," Shepard said, one hand stroking and rubbing between her legs, the other cupping a breast and tugging on a stiff nipple. "You were right, Bowers. I took that cock of yours for granted, but now I've realized what I'd be missing if I didn't get to have you anymore. Please... unh... please forgive me," Shepard moaned as she feverishly stroked at her clit. "Oh, Bowers, I want you so bad!"  
  
Bowers glanced over at Solvitis with a grin. "Shit, you weren't kidding. Bitch is hot as a firecracker." Pulling out of Miranda, Bowers stepped over to the moaning, writhing Shepard. "Show me how bad you want me, Shepard."  
  
Shepard quickly got to her knees in front of Bowers, licking her lips before wrapping them around his cock, still slick with Miranda's juices. Liara felt her stomach turn as Shepard let out aroused moans around Bowers's length. Pulling him out of her mouth, she stared directly at Liara as she said, "Oh, god, I _love_ the feeling of this cock down my throat!" and then returned to fellating the human merc.  
  
"Dammit, Shepard," Liara thought to herself, knowing immediately what she was trying to do. "'What I was doing in the mess hall was just an act,'" that was what she had said. And now she was going to prove it to Liara by fucking the most loathsome of Delaana's henchmen, and "enjoying" it the whole while.  
  
"I can't wait anymore," Shepard said, standing up with her hand still stroking Bowers's meat. "Please fuck me, Bowers. I need you inside me now."  
  
"Shit," Bowers moaned, his cruel bravado vanished in the face of Shepard's feigned arousal. Shepard lightly pushed him into one of the chairs, and then wrapped her legs around his hips and reached back to guide him inside of her.  
  
"Yes," Shepard hissed between clenched teeth as Bowers's cock filled her. "Oh, fuck yes," Shepard began bouncing up and down on Bowers's prick, reaching up to fondle her own breasts as she rode him. Again, she shot a glance over at Liara, as if to say "Satisfied yet?"

"Hey, no need for that," Bowers said, pulling Shepard's hands away from her tits and directing them to his shoulders. "Miranda, get over here and help Shepard out, huh?" Looking at Shepard, he gave her a wink. "Why let a perfectly good set of hands go to waste, right?"  
  
"Now you're fucking talking," Shepard said with a smile. Liara felt her food start to roil in her stomach, as she watched Miranda slightly crouch behind Shepard and grab hold of her bouncing tits. Changing her angle so that Liara had a good view, Shepard pivoted her head toward Miranda's. Understanding Shepard's intentions, Miranda tentatively leaned down to kiss her, Bowers letting out an appreciative groan as the two women made out with each other.  
  
Liara let out a groan of her own, this one of extreme discomfort. She couldn't bear to watch this anymore. If she was forced to stay there any longer...  
  
"Hey, what's this?" Solvitis said with a sneer in his voice, walking over to stand near Liara. "Don't think the asari's liking the show too much."  
  
"Shit, that's... that's too bad," Bowers grunted, too enraptured with Shepard impaling herself on his prick to offer much banter in return.  
  
Crouching down face-to-face with Liara, Solvitis had a taunting lilt to his voice. "Feeling a little queasy, asari? The sight of your girlfriend giving it up to a human a little too much for you? Just can't keep that lunch down while Bowers sticks it to..."  
  
She couldn't hold back anymore. Leaning forward, Liara started voiding her stomach. Solvitis let out an annoyed grunt as her vomit splashed across her breasts and onto his clothes.  
  
"Fucking shit," Solvitis cursed, while Bowers laughed at his anger. Glaring, he barked at Liara. "Come on, bitch, you're going to clean this mess up yourself! Follow me!"  
  
As Liara trailed after Solvitis, puke dripping from her tits, she could hear the moans and ecstatic cries of Shepard from behind her in the mess hall.  
  
* * *  
  
When they reached the restroom and shower area, Solvitis immediately went to the sinks and turned them all on, the sound of running water filling the room. Grabbing a rag from a shelf, he tossed it at Liara. "Here, clean yourself up, and then wipe off my clothes," he ordered her, but the anger and spite he normally put on around the other mercs was gone. "Go slow, give us time to talk."  
  
Liara dampened the rag, as she tried to force the images out of her mind of Shepard giving herself willingly to Bowers. Slowly, she mopped at the puke on her breasts, while speaking softly to keep her voice under the sound of the water running in the sinks. "That shot you gave me before we went into the mess hall..."  
  
"A mild nausea inducement agent," Solvitis also spoke quietly, keeping his eyes off of Liara's bare breasts as she wiped away the remains of her meal. "Sorry, it was the only way I could think to get you alone in here without arousing too much suspicion."  
  
"It's okay," Liara said. "The last place I wanted to be right now was in there."  
  
Solvitis shook his head in sorrow. "I know it's painful to watch, but your friends have the right idea. Make Bowers and the rest of them believe they've been broken, that they're obedient slaves, and it'll keep them off their guards."  
  
"That's not really what Shepard's..." Liara started to say, then shook her head. "No, never mind. How are things going with contacting your team?"  
  
"Later tonight, I'm going to get access to engineering," Solvitis told her. "Trigger a fake power fluctuation. The whole system will be down for only a few seconds, but it'll be enough time to get a message out to my team without the Broker's security protocols being tripped."  
  
Liara frowned. "Sounds dangerous. You sure you'll be able to pull it off without being caught?"  
  
"I'm going to have to try," Solvitis said. "Can't let this go on for much longer."  
  
"Please," Liara said, as she moved forward to wipe away the mess from his clothes. "We'll survive. Don't put yourself at unnecessary risk for our sakes. If you get caught, then none of us are getting out of this."

Solvitis stared down at her cleaning his clothing and sighed. "Look, what you said before, about me hiding something. It's true. That partner that died because of the Broker... she... wasn't just a partner. Me and her, we..." Solvitis trailed off.  
  
"I see," Liara said. "But why wouldn't you want to tell me that?"  
  
"Because..." Solvitis reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. "Because she was an asari. And I didn't want you to think I was doing this because I expected... that I was wanting to..."  
  
Liara looked up and smiled. "Don't worry. What was she like?"  
  
"Uh, she..." Solvitis seemed at a loss for words for a moment. "She was a lot like you, actually. When they first assigned us together, I thought I was going to have to carry her weight and do all the tough stuff. But she was stronger than I could have ever imagined. Even when the Blue Suns had us dead to rights, she fought with every last breath." Solvitis stared into the distance, looking wistful. "Maybe that's why I want to get you out of here so bad. I couldn't save her, but if I can save you and your friends, maybe that'll be enough for her to forgive me, wherever she is."  
  
"I'm sure she's already forgiven you," Liara said, cleaning off the last drops of vomit from Solvitis's clothing. "That's what lovers do."  
  
And immediately, Liara thought of Shepard, and realized the hypocrisy of her own words.  
  
Solvitis gave her one last nod, before shutting off the sinks. "Don't ever fucking do that again, bitch," he snarled at her. "Or next time, I'll make you clean it off with your tongue, understand?"  
  
"I'm sorry," Liara meekly said.  
  
"Shut up and follow me back to your cell," Solvitis said, turning to open the bathroom door...  
  
"Am I... interrupting something?"  
  
...and finding Delaana standing outside, staring at them both with narrowed eyes.


	11. Verum et Falsum

Solvitis, to his credit, didn't blink an eye.  
  
"Stupid bitch threw up all over me," he growled, wiping the back of his hand against his damp shirt. "Figured she made the mess, she should have to clean it up."  
  
But the excuse didn't do anything to dampen the suspicious expression on the asari leader's face. She stood with her hands folded behind her back, her purple eyes moving back and forth between the two of them. Liara felt like those eyes were burrowing directly inside her mind.  
  
"Is that right, Dr. T'Soni?" Delaana turned her hard gaze toward Liara. "Feeling a little sick, were you?"  
  
"Yes," Liara said, bowing her head deferentially. "I'm sorry."  
  
"Watching Shepard and Miss Lawson get into the spirit of things a little too much for you, huh?" Delaana coldly smirked. "Not surprising, I suppose. Although... it's a funny thing..." She looked back at Solvitis, lips pursed. "Hawkins said somebody has been in the medbay recently. Stealing things out of the supply cabinet. Heard anything from the men about it, Solvitis?"  
  
Solvitis laughed it off. "Come on, Delaana, you know these types of guys. Not like the Broker lets us have any dope up here or anything. Can't really be surprised that thugs like them would be raiding the drug stash, right?"  
  
"'Thugs like _them_ '?" Delaana repeated Solvitis's words quizzically. "Sounds like you think you're better than them. Are you, Solvitis? Are you better than them? Better than _me_ , is that what you're saying?"  
  
Solvitis withered a little at the furious look Delaana was giving him, but managed to keep calm. "Nah, just saying I don't do that shit, that's all. Put too much of that stuff in your body, throws your aim off, you know?"  
  
Her brows still furrowed, Delaana gave her underling a toothy, predatory smile. "You've got a point there, I suppose. And yeah, Hawkins said that whoever it was swiped a lot of painkillers, hallucinogenics, stuff like that." She paused a moment, and then put a finger to the corner of her mouth. "Although weird thing, there was one thing they stole that didn't make a lot of sense to me. Some sort of ipecac solution. You know what ipecac is, Solvitis?"  
  
Solvitis shook his head. "Nah, like I said, don't use any dope or ipecac or anything like that. But I'll keep an ear to the ground. If I figure out who stole the shit, I'll..."  
  
"It's actually a lot like you," Delaana raised her voice to interrupt him. "Ipecac, that is. By which I mean, both tend to make somebody want to puke." She sneered at the turian in disdain. "So, I'm thinking it's a strange coincidence, you know? That somebody steals a supply of ipecac one day, and then the next day Dr. T'Soni suddenly heaves her lunch all over you. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but doesn't that sound funny to you, too?"  
  
"Yeah, that... oh, shit." Solvitis said. "Oh, those bastards! Those rotten bastards!" Leaning his head back, he barked out laughter. "I should have known!"  
  
Delaana frowned. "What exactly are you babbling about?"  
  
"That's why the bitch puked up!" Solvitis said, pointing a talon back at Liara. "Those bastards slipped it into her food without telling me! Dammit, I knew they were going to get me back for what I did to them back in that bar on Omega eventually. But damned if they didn't still catch me by surprise!" Chuckling, Solvitis shook his head. "I'm gonna have to come up with something damn good to pay them back for this one!"  
  
"In her food," Delaana deadpanned, not sharing in Solvitis's mirth. "You're saying that somebody slipped her the ipecac in her food?"  
  
"That has to have been it," Solvitis said. "It just makes too much sense."

Delaana quirked her lips. "Yes, of course. So much sense. That your teammates slipped this ipecac – which, incidentally, was an injection, not oral – into Dr. T'Soni's food, knowing that you would choose exactly the moment it would take effect to get up real close to her and get puked on," Delaana crossed her arms under her chest. "Gotta say, that's one hell of a prank they pulled, considering there's no chance in hell it should have actually fucking worked."  
  
Solvitis's jaw gaped open wordlessly, his cool and flippant demeanor shattered.  
  
"Listen, you fuck," Delaana took two steps towards him, standing inches away from his face. "I know all about you and your past. C-Sec. The dead asari. You think I don't know about what you're fucking up to here? You think I'm a fucking moron, huh?"  
  
"Delaana, I don't know what you're..."  
  
"Save it, you fuck," Delaana cut him off again. "All the time you've been spending around her, whispering those secret little messages," she turned to Liara. "What's he been telling you, huh? That he's really a sweet guy? That if you just trust him and follow his lead, he'll get you out of this terrible situation?"  
  
Liara didn't know what to do, what answer would even help at this point, so she simply said nothing.  
  
"Thought so," Delaana said. "Know why we brought this guy in, Dr. T'Soni? Honestly, I didn't want to, but the Broker went over my head. Because he figured that a serial rapist and murderer would be the perfect fit for this little assignment." Delaana cocked her head and grinned darkly. "Oh, did he leave out that part? Did he tell you he was just a misunderstood orphan, who turned to crime to support his poor dying little sister, and only did bad things because he had no other choice? Bullshit. The Broker got hold of his C-Sec records, and I don't think you'll be too fond of your new friend when you find out what his real story is."  
  
Liara struggled to keep her expression blank, even as she was starting to realize that something strange was going on here. Delaana was acting like she had all the answers, but if that were the case, Solvitis would already be dead. So what the hell was she talking about?  
  
"He was a small-time hood until he and his asari girlfriend hooked up with the Blue Suns. Oh, they were quite an adorable couple... until Solvitis here had a few too many and decided it might be fun to torture her to death. Even the Suns have limits, unfortunately for Solly here, and they shot him up and left him for dead when they found out. But a fucker like this doesn't go down easy. Tracked down the folks who double-crossed him and carved them up just like he did his girlfriend. Coroner reports say he paid special attention to the females."  
  
Liara glanced over at Solvitis, who was trying his best to look stern and uncaring. When he saw her looking, the turian gave her a quick nod, and Liara understood. It was his cover story. The fake background he and his comrades had composed to get him into the Shadow Broker's employ. His cover wasn't broken after all. Liara kept her eyes on the floor to hide the relief that washed over her.  
  
"After he finished his business with the Blue Suns, Solvitis went freelance after that," Delaana continued her speech, her voice filled with disdain for her hireling. "Piracy, mercenary work. The bloodier the better. And he just _loved_ to take hostages," Delaana scowled at Solvitis. "Especially asari. Witness records say he would sweet-talk them, play the part of the misunderstood criminal with a heart of gold. And then, once they trusted him completely, that's when he would tie them down, rape them until he'd had his fill, and then start cutting off pieces of their flesh." Turning her angry stare at him, she sneered. "How many were you up to at last count, huh? Fourteen? Fifteen?"  
  
Solvitis shrugged, his voice cold and emotionless. "Dunno. After a while, you kinda lose track."

"You f..." Delaana bit back the words, snapping her stare back to Liara. "So that's who you've been palling around with the past few days, Dr. T'Soni. A sick fucking serial rapist and murderer, who's just trying to get you to trust him before he slices you open like a piece of meat." Whirling back to Solvitis, she jabbed a finger into his chest. "But that ain't gonna fucking happen, you hear me? Obviously I can't trust you to control yourself around Dr. T'Soni. So you're on general guard duty from now on. I don't want you setting foot in her cell, or in the mess hall, from now on. You even get within ten feet of her, and I'll show you what it's like to go up against an asari who can fight back for once. You understand?"  
  
The turian nodded. "Yes, ma'am."  
  
Delaana glared at him. "Well? You heard me, didn't you? Get the fuck out of here!"  
  
Solvitis quickly turned and walked away, leaving Liara alone in the hallway with Delaana. The asari mercenary quivered in rage as she watched the turian depart. Her fists were clenched tightly, and when she finally calmed down, Liara could see light trails of blue trickling from the wounds her fingernails had left in her palms.  
  
"One rule," Delaana muttered, barely loud enough for Liara to hear. "One rule I give these bastards, and they can't even manage to not fuck that up." Turning to Liara, Delaana's voice was level and calm again. "I don't know how much of his bullshit you bought, but don't. Every last one of these men were brought in specifically because they were the kind of sick perverts that would enjoy the sort of treatment we're giving your friends. They're rapists and killers, every last one of them."  
  
"Including you?" Liara responded, remembering Delaana gleefully melding with Miranda and watching her writhe in agony.  
  
Delaana broke eye contact with Liara as she answered. "Yeah, including me." Turning, Delaana started walking away from Liara. "Find your own way back to your cell. I'm sure you know the way by now."   
  
* * *  
  
When Liara returned to her cell, the door was ajar, and the sounds of ecstatic groans were coming from the open portal.  
  
"Yeah, you like that, don't you?" asked a man's voice. "You like that fat cock inside that tight little asshole, don't you?"  
  
And Liara leaned hard against the wall outside the door when she heard the response. "Fuck yeah," Shepard moaned. "Pull my hair while you fuck me. Harder, dammit! Fuck me just like that, yeah!"  
  
Liara couldn't bring herself to enter, staying outside the room while whichever of Delaana's henchmen it was raped Shepard. The rhythmic slap of flesh against flesh, and Shepard's overblown whorish moans seemed loud enough to fill the entire ship. After what seemed like an hour of the horrible sounds, she heard the man in the cell start grunting, and Shepard made sure to cry out in mock pleasure as his cum no doubt filled up her asshole. A few seconds after the grunts ceased, Liara could hear people moving, following by Shepard starting to moan again.  
  
"Yeah, there you go," the man said. "Lick it all out. You're such a good little ass eater, aren't you? Think you might be starting to like it."  
  
From the wet slurping sounds Liara now heard, she didn't need to be in the cell to know what was happening. And if she had any doubts, Shepard's next words put those to rest. "Mmm, yes. Lick up all that cum, Miranda. Get that tongue deep inside my ass." From the sound of it, she was throwing herself completely into the role of the broken, horny slave. To the point where Liara worried that she might be laying it on a bit too thick.  
  
As the sounds of Miranda lapping up cum from Shepard's ass continued, Yuri walked out of the cell, adjusting his belt. He seemed mildly surprised at first to see Liara there by herself, but then gave her a gap-toothed grin. "Think your friends are starting to enjoy themselves a little. Pity you can't join the fun." Whistling to himself, Yuri casually strolled away.

Liara waited until he was gone before stepping into the cell. Inside, Miranda's face was still buried between Shepard's asscheeks, the once-proud Cerberus operative trying her best to put her tongue as far up Shepard's ass as possible. With Miranda in such a position, and Shepard's eyes closed in faux ecstasy, they must not have even noticed Yuri had left.  
  
"He's gone," Liara said. When this didn't elicit a response from either of the human women, she raised her voice. "Miranda, Shepard! He's gone. You can stop now."  
  
Slowly, as if in a trance, Miranda pulled away from Shepard, Yuri's cum dripping down her chin. She stared over at Liara, her eyes glazed over and distant, and for a second Liara wondered if Miranda even recognized her. But eventually, she nodded and returned to the corner of the cell, eyes down at the floor.  
  
Shepard, meanwhile, stood up and faced Liara. Lips quivering, Liara rushed forward to embrace Shepard. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I'm..."  
  
"It was just an act," Shepard whispered back. "Just to keep them from getting suspicious. All just an act."  
  
"I know, I know," Liara said, squeezing Shepard tightly.  
  
But Shepard kept talking. "Just an act. That's all it was. Just pretending. Just an act."  
  
Liara sobbed into Shepard's shoulder. How could she have been so cruel? To get into a fight over their relationship now, when all they had to try and keep each other sane in this situation was each other. Pulling Shepard down to sit on the floor with her, Liara kissed her deeply, the taste of her lips mingling with the salt of her tears.  
  
Later that night, as she drifted off to sleep, she heard Shepard's voice just before the world faded to black.  
  
"Just an act. All just an act. That's all it is."


	12. The Taste of It on your Tongue

  
The next day, Liara awoke to find Shepard and Miranda both still there in the cell. Whatever business had kept the Broker from choosing one of them to molest the previous day was apparently still capturing the yahg's undivided attention.  
  
So they sat, Liara now back in Shepard's comforting arms. But something was different. Before, Shepard had either stared down into Liara's eyes, or leaned her head against her lover's. But today, Shepard's attention remained focused on the door to their cell. Her embrace was loose, and for a second Liara thought she could feel Shepard tensing her muscles. An image of Shepard leaping to her feet and making a run for it when the door opened for their meal entered Liara's mind, and filled her with dread.  
  
"Just a little while longer, Shepard," Liara thought to herself. "We have to believe that Solvitis can get us out."  
  
She remembered the previous night, Shepard babbling madly after putting on her act for Yuri. It was probably a good thing that Shepard was trying so hard to play the part, but still, it was obvious that the situation was taking its mental toll on Shepard.  
  
"Shepard," Liara leaned up to whisper into her ear. "You..." she started to say, before the door slid open and Glyph drifted inside, repeating his usual call to the mess hall.  
  
As they walked down the corridor, Liara searched in vain for any sign of Solvitis. But he wasn't there, and as Liara took her seat in the mess hall, she decided that it was better that way. They had come perilously close to blowing the whole plan before. And, as Solvitis had said once before, it wasn't like there was much Liara or her fellow prisoners could do to help with the escape. Either Solvitis would figure out a way to get them out, or he wouldn't. They would just have to wait and see until then.  
  
"Not to mention," Liara thought to herself, "It meant Solvitis wouldn't have to have sex with Shepard again to maintain his cover." Liara may have forgiven Shepard for what had happened with Garrus, but she still didn't like the idea of having to watch her and Solvitis putting on an act again.  
  
It was Okoru today, the dark-skinned human delivering the tray with two plates onto Shepard and Miranda's table, before giving Liara her food and leaning against a wall to watch them. Glancing over, Liara saw Shepard and Miranda rapidly taking spoonfuls of the dark green soup or stew or whatever it was. No doubt they wanted to get their meals out of the way as soon as possible. Because what was inevitably going to come next would spoil any appetite they had.  
  
Sure enough, after Shepard and Miranda had finished, Okoru shoved himself away from the wall. "Well, now, look at you girls. Hungry today, aren't we?" Okoru's voice was filled with his usual dark seduction. "Wonder if maybe you're hungry for a little something else, eh?"  
  
Looking up from her empty plate, Shepard gave Okoru a crooked smile. "Depends on what you've got, big guy. You feel like showing us?"  
  
Even knowing it was all just a sham, it sickened Liara a little to hear Shepard direct those suggestive words toward one of their captors. Okoru seemed a little taken aback himself, but quickly recovered and began unzipping his pants. Shepard watched Okoru's groin with half-lidded eyes.  
  
"Ooh, that is a lot," Shepard said, as the guard's thick length was finally freed from his pants. "But I think I can make some room." Leaning towards him, Shepard ran her tongue along the base of Okoru's cockhead, leaving a glistening wet trail in its wake.  
  
Liara stared down at her plate, trying her best to ignore the sounds of Shepard's lips smacking against Okoru's prick, or the mercenary's rough moans of appreciation. "It's just an act. It's just an act," Liara tried to think to herself, hoping it would give her comfort the same way it seemed to for Shepard.  
  
"Mmm, I love the taste of your cock," Shepard moaned. Liara thought about Solvitis, imagined him handing her a gun, and the two of them pouring round after round into the Broker and all of his hirelings. Thought about the first time she had seen Shepard, arriving to free her for the stasis device that she had feared would be her final resting place.

"I need you inside me, right now," said Shepard, and Liara heard her chair being pushed out from the table as she got into position. In her mind, Liara was back in the medbay on the SR1, Shepard coming in to check up on her. How awkward she had felt around the mysterious and alluring human, and how Shepard had put her mind at ease.  
  
"Oooh, yeah. Fuck, that cock feels so good inside me," Shepard said, and Liara's reminiscences were being intruded upon by the sound of Shepard's chair legs scraping against the floor of the mess hall, the chair jarring forward with every thrust by Okoru. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape. "Yeah, spank my ass while you're fucking me." Smack. Scrape. Smack. Scrape.  
  
Liara remembered the night before Ilos. Walking into Shepard's quarters had been terrifying, but she had never been more sure of anything in her 106 years. Her place was by Shepard, now and for the rest of their years, however long they might be.  
  
Smack. Scrape. Smack. Scrape.  
  
"Shepard, don't be selfish," piped up Miranda, and the sound of her voice brought Liara out of her memories immediately. "Don't I get to have a little too?" Miranda trying to do her part to take her fair share of the abuse, Liara imagined.  
  
"Maybe... next time..." Okoru grunted at her. "You're so hot, why don't you go give your asari friend a little attention? Us not being able to touch her, I'm sure she's dying for some attention."  
  
Liara tensed, struggling to keep the panic off her face. It had been bad enough when Shepard had been forced to pleasure her; at least then it was the touch... and tongue of her own lover. But to have to feign sexual arousal at being with Miranda, all while the woman she really loved was being raped right next to her? Liara resisted the urge to shudder as she watched Miranda stand up and make her way over to Liara's table.  
  
After glancing back at Okoru, who had a moaning Shepard bent over her chair and impaled on his cock, Miranda instructed Liara to turn her chair away from the table and towards her. Once Liara had obeyed, Miranda put one of her legs at Liara's side, and then gracefully swung the other one around, sitting herself down on Liara's lap.  
  
Miranda leaned forward, her large breasts pressing against Liara's as she whispered. "Just play along. It'll be better that way." Reaching up to brush back her long black hair, Miranda began slowly gyrating her hips around in Liara's lap. Liara had to admire Miranda; she was doing almost as well as Shepard was of playing the part of the sexually heated, broken slave. Leaning her waist back, Miranda let out a loud, heated moan as she ran her hands up her stomach before cupping her breasts, fondling herself as she continuing wiggling her hips.  
  
"Oh, fuck," Shepard squealed, as the sound of the metal chair scraping against the floor grew more and more rapid. Liara closed her eyes, blocking out the hideously carnal sights around her. She went into her mind again, pretending that the warm body resting on her lap was Shepard's. That the hands that were now groping her own breasts were Shepard's.  
  
And that the lips pressing against hers, the tongue that was working its way into her mouth, belonged to the woman she loved.  
  
Just as she had managed to fully wrap herself up in the fantasy, and as the fingers that she imagined were Shepard's started working their way down between her legs...  
  
"Enough, Okoru!" called out Delaana's voice from a loudspeaker. "You've wasted enough time in there. They're overdue for their appointment with Hawkins. Put it back in your pants and let them finish up their meals."  
  
"Dammit, woman! I was nearly..." Okoru protested to the open air. But like the rest of the team, he knew what would come if he defied orders. Pulling out of Shepard, Okoru returned his painfully stiff cock back to his pants, struggling to zip up.  
  
"Aw, too bad" Shepard let out a feigned moan of disappointment. Standing up from leaning on the chair and turning around, she reached down and grabbed the thick bulge in Okoru's pants. "How about you come back later tonight? I'll make it up to you, I swear."  
  
"Shepard, don't," Liara thought to herself. "It's one thing to pretend like you're aroused by all this. But there's no need to encourage them."

Thankfully, Okoru shook his head. "Sorry, my lovely. I'm afraid the Broker has other plans for you tonight. Until next time, ladies."  
  
As Okoru left the mess hall, Miranda stood up from Liara's lap. Liara turned back to the table and ate the rest of her meal, while trying to bring back those happy memories of Shepard.  
  
But instead, all she could think about was... smack. Scrape. Smack. Scrape.  
  
* * *  
  
"Hmm, you're here early," said Hawkins, the human medic, as the three of them were led into the medbay. "Line yourself up against the wall like before; I'm still getting some of my equipment ready."  
  
"Early?" Liara thought to herself. "But Delaana had said we were overdue." Regardless, she followed Shepard and Miranda over to the indicated spot, the three of them standing and waiting for their inspection.  
  
As with the last time, Hawkins put on gloves and began running his hands along Shepard's skin, giving her entire body a thorough inspection. Once he was satisfied, he directed Shepard to open her mouth and ran a cotton swab against her tongue.  
  
Liara wondered to herself what exactly these tests were supposed to determine. Liara doubted the Shadow Broker was all that interested in ensuring the well-being of his captives. So what was the point of this?  
  
Crouching down on the floor, Hawkins pulled out the same set of tools from last time, and used the speculum to open up Shepard's labia. Again, as he inspected Shepard's insides with a small flashlight, he spewed out a long list of medical terms.  
  
After he was finished with Shepard, Hawkins began the same procedures on Miranda. Liara heard her gasp as the cold metal speculum slipped inside her. Liara remembered last time, Hawkins seemed a bit perturbed at his findings when examining Miranda. This time, however, his tone was the same as when he inspected Shepard, both from his vaginal inspection, and from the results of the saliva test. Whatever had bothered him the last time appeared to have gone away.  
  
Next, Hawkins stepped up to Liara, and she wondered if he was going to pass her over like he did the last time. Staring at her disdainfully, he said, "Hold out your arm, please."  
  
"Why?" Liara reflexively asked, and immediately saw Hawkins's face turn sour.  
  
"Because I told you to," he sternly said to her. "And because I need to take a blood sample."  
  
Liara extended her right arm toward Hawkins, who grabbed it in a hard grip that made Liara gasp in pain. After searching for a few seconds for an artery, Hawkins jabbed the needle in without warning. The pain of his rough injection make Liara's eyes water, and she looked away as the medic drew out a sample of her blood.  
  
Yanking the needle out of her arm, Hawkins dismissively applied a dab of medigel to her arm. "Not sure why Delaana thinks we need to run a blood test on you," Hawkins muttered, more to himself than Liara. "But what do I know? I'm just the damned medic."  
  
A blood test. Liara felt a chill run down her spine. "Is she testing for the drug that Solvitis injected me with?" she thought in a panic. For a second, she thought about knocking the syringe out of Hawkins's hands onto the floor, but she knew it would do little good, and only provoke another brutal injection. She just had to hope that whatever chemical he had given her, it was already out of her bloodstream. Or that maybe the test wasn't for the nausea agent at all.  
  
"You two, go back to your cell," Hawkins told the humans, before turning with a sneer to Liara. "And you're going to her office."  
  
As Liara walked down the hallway, she tried to think positive. "They're trusting us to walk around the ship on our own now," she thought. "Solvitis was right: pretending that we've been defeated has made them lower their guards." She didn't know if it would help at all in effecting their escape, but it was an encouraging sign that all of the feigned passion and arousal was working as intended.  
  
When the door opened to Delaana's office, the asari mercenary leader looked up at Liara from her seat behind the desk.  
  
To Delaana's credit, she covered it up quickly. But in her time as an information broker, Liara had learned to pay attention to every expression, every small indication a person gave of their mood.

And for the briefest of seconds, when Delaana had saw her entering... she had smiled. Not a harsh, sadistic grin, but a full-on, genuine smile.  
  
This gave Liara another boost of confidence. Her attempts to ingratiate herself to the lonely asari mercenary, to make her believe that the two of them were friends, was working. Keeping her own expression blank, Liara sat in the chair opposite Delaana. As she settled in, she noticed for the first time something on the desk. A metal dish with a lid.  
  
Seeing Liara's stare, Delaana smirked. "A little weakness of mine," she said, as she removed the lid to reveal a small pile of dark brown morsels. "Most human food makes me puke like I'm a dextro, but this 'chocolate' of theirs is absolutely amazing. Have you ever had it?"  
  
"Once," Liara said, remembering Shepard telling her about the human holiday, "Valentine's Day," and the two of them sharing several pieces. It was good, but even better was the kiss afterward, and the taste of the sweet substance on her lover's tongue.  
  
"Go ahead, have some," Delaana invited her. As Liara tentatively reached forward, Delaana added, "I poisoned one of them, though, so choose wisely." When Liara's hand froze above the dish, Delaana gave one of her grating, cackling laughs. "You should have seen the look on your face! Just kidding, they're all fine."  
  
Liara weakly chuckled back, playing along with Delaana's terrible joke. Picking up a piece of chocolate, she sat back in her seat and placed the candy into her mouth. Delaana watched her expectantly, until Liara finished chewing and swallowed it down. "It's good," Liara said.  
  
"Glad you like it, pet," Delaana said, and again, just for a second, that hard demeanor of hers faded. "But I guess I should have told you," Delaana said, her momentary slip quickly buried once again. "There's a price to pay for the privilege of that chocolate. You're going to have to do something for me in return."  
  
The lingering sweet taste in her throat turned to acid. "Goddess, it's finally happening," she thought. "She's going to force herself on me, I know it."  
  
But Delaana didn't rise from her chair as Liara feared. "Much as I've loved our daily poetry chats, I think we've pretty much exhausted the subject," Delaana said. "So instead, in exchange for that taste of chocolate, I want you to tell me a story."  
  
"A story," Liara repeated incredulously.  
  
"Yeah. See, when I first laid eyes on you, so frail and delicate-looking, I just couldn't believe that you were part of Shepard's team. That you had fought alongside her... killed alongside her. But the more time I spend around you, look into those big blue eyes... it's hidden, but I can definitely see it. That toughness that comes with fighting for your life. Probably how you managed to do so well before now. Most folks wouldn't move past that first impression, wouldn't see you as anything more than a demure asari maiden who wouldn't survive a second in a fire fight. But no, I see it now."  
  
Delaana leaned forward, taking one of the chocolate morsels herself. "So you've got my curiosity, Dr. T'Soni. And the story I want to hear about is your first kill." Popping the chocolate into her mouth, she swirled it around for a bit, letting the taste coat her tongue. "I want to hear about the moment you realized you were capable of taking another living being's life."  
  
"I..." Liara stammered, legitimately taken aback by the question. "I'm not sure I remember."  
  
"Bullshit," Delaana said. "You remember. Everyone remembers, even a hundred kills afterward. It's like your first fuck." She arched a brow. "Hmm, maybe I should have you tell that story instead. Perhaps that one's more vivid in your memory."  
  
Liara shook her head. The last thing she wanted was to have to talk about that wonderful night with Shepard in a horrible situation like this. "No, no, I remember it. My first kill, I remember."  
  
Leaning forward with an eager expression, Delaana waited.

"It was on a dig in the Terminus systems," Liara said. "Some planetary scans there had discovered signs of what could have been an ancient Prothean settlement. Problem was, several batarian gangs were in the middle of a territory dispute, one which showed no signs of ending. Most of my colleagues believed that the region was too dangerous, but I couldn't let such a valuable find be destroyed or plundered by a bunch of foolish criminals."  
  
Delaana smirked at her. "Even back then, more guts than brains," she remarked. "Least that encounter went better than tangling against the Shadow Broker."  
  
"I suppose so," Liara glumly noted.  
  
"So, what, you went in all on your own?" Delaana asked.  
  
Liara shook her head. "I hired a team of mercenaries. Reputable people who I could trust, not..." Liara realized what she was about to say and clammed up.  
  
But Delaana completed her thoughts. "Not scum like me," she said, with no anger in her voice. "Good call. Although if you'd put down the money for my services back then, this story wouldn't end with you being forced to do any fighting yourself, I can guarantee you that. So how'd your 'reputable mercenaries' fuck up?"  
  
"They managed to get me to the site without incident," Liara recalled. "Although most of the artifacts were beyond salvaging, I managed to find a few pieces. But as we were leaving, one of the gangs found us. Attempts at negotiating our way out of a fight... did not go well, and before long we were under heavy fire."  
  
Delaana popped another chocolate into her mouth, staying quiet and listening in rapt attention to Liara's story.  
  
"The batarians had us outnumbered, but they weren't as well-trained as my team. I was hiding behind some cover when one of the mercenaries caught a shot." Liara closed her eyes, her memory drifting back. "It was so strange. One moment she had been alive, and then the next she was lying on the ground. I remember feeling so... angry. That it was so unfair that these criminals had robbed her of the centuries of life she still had remaining. All of her hopes, her dreams, the children she might have had... all gone in an instant."  
  
Liara almost began to feel like she was back in that moment, the sounds of screams and gunfire calling back from the distant past. "I remember picking up her gun and taking aim at one of the batarians, the one who'd killed the mercenary with me. He probably didn't think I was a threat, and was focusing on the rest of my team when I took aim at him. My first shot hit him in the neck, and the second went through the side of his head. I remember watching him fall to the ground and feeling..."  
  
"Satisfied?" Delaana offered.  
  
"Yes," Liara said. "Part of me thought that I shouldn't feel that way. That I had done the same thing to that batarian that he had done to the mercenary, taken away his life with a few pulls of the trigger. But I felt this rush, this feeling of... victory. He wanted to take my life, but I took his instead. It was only after the fighting was over and we were evacuating that I started to feel a bit sick, like I was just then realizing what I'd done. But I'll never forget that initial feeling I had, watching that batarian crumble to the ground, and feeling like I'd won."  
  
It occurred to Liara, as she finished speaking, that she had never told that story to anyone before. Not even to Shepard. Liara knew she would have probably understood, being a soldier like she was, but she didn't want to take the chance. Take the risk of seeing that look of love in Shepard's eyes waver, even for a second, and know that Shepard's opinion of her had changed.  
  
"And it only got easier after that, I'm sure," Delaana said, licking some melted chocolate off her finger. "You're lucky. Your first kill was from a distance. You didn't have to look them in the eye like I did." Delaana's expression clouded a little. "You remember me telling you about the day I found out I was an Ardat-Yakshi, pet?" Liara nodded. "When I told them I'd allow them to cloister me, the idiots made the mistake of giving me a day to prepare before I left home forever. I stowed away on a freighter that night, thinking I'd gotten away scot-free. But that was just the first day of the hunt."

Delaana looked away from Liara and stared into space as she told her story. "See, my parents are kind of a big deal in politics back home. The last thing they wanted was for word to get out that their daughter was not only an Ardat-Yakshi, but was on the loose and sowing her wild oats out across the entire Milky Way. So they pulled a few strings, called in some favors... and before I knew it, I was the number one target of a justicar."  
  
"A justicar?" Liara asked. "But she would have..."  
  
"Killed me, yeah," Delaana said. "Quite a thing, going on the run for your freedom, and then having your own parents essentially put a contract on your head." Her expression turned pained, but Delaana quickly got her emotions under control. "But for a while, I was okay. Well, as 'okay' as a young asari all by herself with barely a credit to her name could be. Ended up on Omega eventually, spent a while begging for spare credits before graduating to petty theft. When I got old enough, I managed to get hired on dancing at Afterlife." Delaana sighed nostalgically. "That was a great time. Made a decent living, and spent my spare time feeding off the locals. Lucky my condition wasn't powerful enough to kill them, or my life on Omega wouldn't have lasted as long as it did. As it was, I did a good enough job convincing my partners not to spill the beans that I'd managed to stay safe there for a good while. But eventually, the justicar found me."  
  
"You fought a justicar and lived?" Liara said, and the awe in her voice was only partially feigned. The idea of a maiden tangling with one of the highly skilled and deadly justicars seemed almost impossible to believe.  
  
"Not that time," Delaana said. "That time I ran. She burst in on me while I was with my latest victim, and I was moving to see what was going on just as she took her first shot. Lucky for me: poor guy who was with me took the round in the shoulder, and I dove for the window before she could fire again. Good thing the Code includes protecting innocents; by the time she'd made sure the sap wasn't going to bleed out, I was long gone."  
  
"But it didn't end there," Liara said.  
  
Delaana scoffed. "You kidding? Once a justicar's on your trail, they don't fucking give up. Ended up running from system to system, buying new identities everywhere I went. But she always found me, and I'd end up on the run again. Forty years that went on, running from place to place, never with a second of peace. Finally, I'd had enough. I knew I had to make a stand."  
  
Squinting her eyes, Delaana shaped the fingers of her right hand into an imitation of a gun. She leveled her pointer finger at Liara's forehead. "Took a long time setting up the perfect trap. But it worked. She was unarmed, and I had her dead in my sights. By this time, I was so angry at her, so tired of her hunting me down for so long... I wanted to see her beg. Wanted to see that solemn face of hers go all weepy and pathetic, knowing that death was just seconds away, and she could down nothing to stop me."  
  
Delaana paused a moment, her finger gun pointed unwaveringly at Liara. Liara knew that at that moment, Delaana was back with that justicar again, wearing a grin of gleeful victory on her face as she stared down at her helpless tormenter.  
  
"But... it didn't happen. She never broke. Never cried, never begged. She just stared back at me, not a hint of fear in her eyes. And just when I went to pull the trigger... the bitch smiled. Fucking smiled as I put a shot right through her brain."  
  
Dropping her hand, Delaana shook her head. "I killed her that day, but the bitch still won. She'd spent decades hunting me down, me fearing for my life every waking minute. But when the tables were turned, and death came for her... she had no fear at all. In the end, she was stronger than me, and when I put her down I felt... nothing."  
  
"Well, after that, nobody fucked with me. I went from a scared maiden hiding in every dark corner, to the powerful bitch who took down a justicar all by herself. So I kept playing the part, went from shaking my ass for credits to firing a gun. And eventually, that got the attention of the mysterious Shadow Broker, and now here I am." Delaana ruefully chuckled. "Quite a story, huh?"

Liara nodded, her eyes downcast. "Very impressive," she obediently said.  
  
"Didn't just tell that story to run my mouth, by the way," Delaana said. "There's a reason I wanted you to hear that, you know. Remember what I said about the justicar's eyes? How there was no fear of death, no sign of weakness?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"I see it in your eyes, too," Delaana said, and took a meaningful pause before her next words. "And what I see there tells me, beyond any doubt, that the Shadow Broker is never going to break you."  
  
"He... isn't?" Liara didn't know what else to say. Had her captor, the woman who was in charge of breaking down her and her friends, really just said that?  
  
Delaana laughed. "You're a terrible actress, you know? Every time you try to look whipped and beaten, you put that meek little look on your face... I ain't buying it. I'm not sure what the Broker is thinking, but he's wasting his damn time, I say. He may have beaten you down just like I beat that justicar, but he didn't defeat you. And unless I miss my guess, he never will."  
  
"Wh... why are you telling me this?"  
  
Delaana shrugged a shoulder casually. "Maybe I'm sick of watching you try to pretend. If I'm going to keep having these chats with you, maybe I'd like to talk to the real Liara T'Soni, not the fake whipped slave persona you're trying to put on when you're around me. Look, I'm not going to pretend that you aren't here just because I've got the gun to your head, pet. But if the Broker's going to keep chasing this foolish idea of watching you get broken, we're going to be here for a good long while. Might as well not waste time bullshitting with each other, right?"  
  
"I suppose not," Liara agreed, still a little stunned about the direction this conversation had taken.  
  
"So, as long as we're being honest: tell me, Dr. T'Soni? How do you feel about me after all our quality time together?"  
  
Liara cocked her head at Delaana. "How do I _feel_ about you? You've set a pack of rapists on my lover and her friend, and forced me to watch as they get turned into mindless sex slaves! How the hell do you think I feel about you? I hate your guts!"  
  
"See, that's what I'm talking about, pet!" Delaana's voice was filled with delight. "That's who I want to see come by and visit me. Not the fake little mouse you've been playing up to this point. I want to see those claws come out!"  
  
If anything, Liara only hated the asari mercenary more now. The bitch was treating Liara like her own personal entertainment, while overseeing the abuse and torture of her friends without a shred of remorse. At the same time, though, there was something almost liberating about not having to hide it anymore. She stared back at Delaana now with open disdain.  
  
"Well, this has definitely been a lot of fun," Delaana said. "But I think it's time for you to head back now." Gesturing toward the bowl, she grinned. "But please, have another before you leave."  
  
She wanted to make a grand gesture of turning to leave without even acknowledging the offer, but dammit. After so many days of eating that bland slop, the taste of that chocolate had been so amazing. She tried her best to keep the simmering hatred in her eyes, even as she begrudgingly pulled out another sweet and left the office.  
  
* * *  
  
The taste of the chocolate was still in her mouth when she reached the cell. With no guard currently inside, the door was closed, and Liara noticed that the door was only locked from the inside, not the outside. "Could be helpful to remember," she mentally filed away the piece of information as she trigged the door and entered the cell.  
  
And noticed immediately that Shepard was gone. Miranda looked up at Liara's arrival with a sad expression. "The Broker called for her."  
  
"Goddess," Liara breathed, as she slumped down against a wall of the bare cell. The reprieve had been short, but Liara knew it couldn't have lasted forever. She reluctantly looked up to see that the vidscreen in their cell was activated.  
  
But it wasn't the Broker's office that was on screen. After a second of staring at the grainy video footage, and seeing some of the furniture in the unfamiliar room, Liara finally realized what she was seeing and groaned in disgusted horror.  
  
It was the beast's bedroom.

The massive yahg had a bed appropriate for its size, wide enough to fit five asari comfortably. The Broker was currently reclining his giant bulk against a mound of pillows, naked with his pulsing, oozing member pointing toward the ceiling.  
  
"Come, slave," the beast intoned. "Service your master properly."  
  
From off-screen, Shepard walked into view, her back to the camera. Liara couldn't see her expression as she got on all fours on the bed and crawled toward the Broker's veiny prick, but Liara had a hard time imagining that Shepard would be able to keep up her act in the face of having to pleasure this monster again.  
  
The Broker's hideous mouth gaped open as Shepard began licking up and down the length of his shaft, lapping up the slimy ooze and precum dripping from the monstrous organ.  
  
"My men tell me you have been most cooperative in the past few days," the Broker said, and the sound of it made Liara long for the days when he had been busy with other affairs. It had been bad enough when he had been hurling threats at them during their ill-fated battle. Now, to hear his voice filled with animalistic lust, was perhaps even more horrifying. "Perhaps you have grown accustomed to your status as a worthless slave."  
  
"Yes, master," Shepard breathed, bringing her hands around to work up and down the Broker's slimy shaft as she spoke. "I am your slave. That's all I am, and all I ever will be."  
  
Shepard was doing so well at sounding defeated, Liara worried for a split second that perhaps she wasn't faking. But that was impossible. Delaana just got finished talking about how strong Liara was, and how the Shadow Broker would never break her. And Liara was nothing compared to Shepard. Shepard had been through so much, weathered so many awful things. Liara couldn't imagine her will ever being broken.  
  
But Shepard was still doing well at playing the part, resuming her oral attentions on the Broker's prick while continuing to stroke it as well. Probably hoping that she could finish him off before he decided to put that huge thing inside of her.  
  
No such luck, however. After several minutes of Shepard's oral efforts, the Broker leaned forward, shoving Shepard back onto the bed roughly with one meaty hand. Getting onto his knees between Shepard's legs, the beast grabbed a thigh in each hand.  
  
"Now, slave," the Broker said to her, positioning the head of his slimy prick at Shepard's opening. "Ask your master to fuck you."  
  
"Ohhh, oh, please. Master, please," Shepard moaned, putting on a show of rolling her hips around, acting like she was desperate to have this monstrous creature inside her. "Fuck me, master, please. I missed your cock so much while you were gone. Please, I need it so bad."  
  
"Then I shall grant it to you, slave," the Broker intoned, before yanking Shepard forward, burying his entire length inside her in one swift stroke.  
  
"AAAAAAHHH!" Shepard cried out at the sudden, painful penetration. As the Broker began fucking her roughly, she gritted her teeth through the pain and continued the act. "Thank you, master. Thank you for... oooh... for fucking your worthless slave. I'm... unh... not worthy of your cock." The Broker's bed let out a cacophony of creaks, as he roughly took his slave.  
  
It went on for much longer than usual, the Shadow Broker slowing his thrusts as his climax approached, delaying the final release as long as possible to prolong Shepard's torture. But Shepard, to her credit, never dropped the guise of the defeated slave. Whenever the Broker slowed down, she urged him to fuck her harder again. When he thrust into her as quickly as his bulk would allow, she moaned and squealed like a common whore.  
  
As before, Liara admired her lover for keeping up the ruse, but it didn't make listening to Shepard debase herself any less painful in the end.  
  
Finally, the Broker had had his fill, and he pulled out of Shepard and began jerking at his cock.  
  
"Master," Shepard said, nearly out of breath from the rough fucking she'd just undergone. "Let me, master."

She nudged the surprised Broker's hand away from his prick with one of her feet, and then placed both of her bare feet on either side of his throbbing cock. Liara placed a hand to her mouth as she watched Shepard agilely jerking off the yahg's cock with her feet.  
  
"Cum for me, master," Shepard urged the beast, her muscular legs bending and flexing as her feet worked the Broker's shaft. "Cum on your filthy slave. Cover me in your cum."  
  
The Broker's four pairs of eyes shut all at once, and he roared as his cock began spewing a truly massive load all over a moaning Shepard. The thick ropes of jism soon covered Shepard, but she kept her feet moving until ever last drop of the yahg's cum had been coaxed out of him, and she seemed to be almost swimming in the foul substance. As the last few drops squirted out, Shepard opened her mouth and aimed the head of the Broker's prick at her mouth, catching the sticky glop in her mouth.  
  
The Shadow Broker let out a satisfied growl as his prick receded back into his body. "An excellent effort, slave. Go clean yourself and return to your cell. I only hope your fellow captive is able to match such a performance the next time I call upon her."  
  
Liara heard Miranda shiver, no doubt imagining what she would have to do to please their hideous master next time.  
  
"Thank you, master," Shepard said, cum dripping off her body as she left the room.  
  
"'The Shadow Broker is never going to break you,'" Delaana had said, and as much as Liara hated that woman, she also wanted desperately to believe her. Because at times like this, seeing Shepard acting utterly debased and defeated, Liara didn't feel like she had the strength that Delaana claimed to see there in her eyes.  
  
After a few minutes, Shepard returned, body rinsed of all of the Broker's fluids. Sitting down next to Liara against the wall, Shepard wrapped her arms around Liara and held her tightly.  
  
"Are you alright, Shepard?" Liara whispered to her.  
  
"It's just an... just something I'm going to have to deal with," Shepard muttered.  
  
Liara reached up a hand to stroke Shepard's cheek. "We're going to get out of here, Shepard. Solvitis has a plan. We have to trust he can get us out."  
  
"I suppose," Shepard said, and Liara heard that same defeat in her voice that she'd heard when Shepard had been playing the broken sex slave to the Shadow Broker.  
  
"We're going to get through this, Shepard," Liara said, leaning toward Shepard with lips parted. "I know we are."  
  
Shepard moved in as well, and their lips met in a warm, open kiss, tongues meeting as...  
  
Liara's eyes immediately went wide. "Oh, Goddess, it's... his taste is still in her mouth," she thought in a disgusted panic. She wanted to pull away, but Shepard had put her hand on the back of Liara's neck and was pressing her forward. Liara struggled not to retch as the horrid taste of the Broker's fluids seemed to wash all over her tongue. She squirmed in Shepard's embrace, trying to give Shepard a hint of her discomfort, but Shepard was too wrapped up in her passion to notice Liara's veiled revulsion.  
  
Finally, mercifully, Shepard pulled away, and Liara took a deep breath and coughed.  
  
"Something wrong?" Shepard asked her.  
  
"No, I'm fine," Liara said, trying not to show how ill she was now feeling in her expression.  
  
As they settled back in to rest for the evening, Shepard's arms wrapped protectively around Liara, Liara thought back to the taste of that chocolate. Anything to get her mind off the horrid flavor of the Broker's fluids in Shepard's kiss.  
  
"'The Shadow Broker is never going to break you,'" Delaana's words in her mind again. And strangely enough, it was those words that brought the most comfort to Liara as she blocked out the horrid memories of the day and drifted off to sleep.


	13. Slaves and Masters

"There you are, pet," Delaana brightly greeted Liara, as she stepped once again into the head mercenary's office. "Goddess, has it been a month already? The time just seems to drift away before you know it."  
  
Liara did not respond, her expression blank as she took her usual seat at the other side of the desk. The smile that Delaana wore at her arrival dampened a little, but she kept her casual tone as she spoke.  
  
"So, what were we talking about last time?" Delaana asked, and then immediately answered her own question. "Ah, right, the ethics of the genophage. Have to admit, pet, you really made me rethink my own position a little. Should we continue with that topic?"  
  
"No," Liara said, her voice quiet and low. Again, a crack in Delaana's cheery façade showed, but the asari mercenary quickly moved on.  
  
"Okay, yeah, I think we pretty much talked that one out. So, how about some history, then? Tell you the truth, I'd love to hear some more about the Protheans. A few nights ago we were talking about Ilos, and those stasis pods the Protheans put themselves in to survive the Reaper war. Would love to hear you tell me more about that. Oh, wait!" Delaana reached into a drawer of her desk, retrieving a bottle and two glasses. "Almost forgot. I managed to get a bottle of salarian ale delivered. Tell you what, those bastards may not live long, but they can brew up some good shit in the decades before they croak." Pouring out a glass, Delaana pushed it toward Liara before starting to pour her own. "So, you want to tell me more about all those ancient bug-eyed weirdos?"  
  
"No," Liara said again. She looked down at the glass in front of her, and back up at Delaana without touching it.  
  
Delaana made a show of shrugging indifferently. "Hey, more for me, then," she said, leaning back in her seat and downing the glass in one swig. "Shit, pet, you don't know what you're missing out on," Delaana enthused over the alcohol. "So, not philosophy, not ancient history. How about some modern stuff? Would love to hear about some of the battles you fought in. I mean, hell, I've been in a few scrapes myself, but this shit you and Shepard pulled off? Un-fucking-believable! So, how about you tell me all about what happened before you set off that big bomb on Virmire, huh? Must have been one hell of a..."  
  
"No."  
  
Slamming her glass down on the desk, hard enough for it to crack, Delaana let out an impatient groan. "Fine, Miss Contrary. What is it that you want to talk about, huh? I'll yield the floor to you for once, if it'll make you happy. What's on your mind, huh?"  
  
Liara didn't blink as she stared back at the annoyed mercenary. "I want to talk about what the Shadow Broker is going to do to us."  
  
"Ugh, you're really trying my patience, pet," Delaana said, pressing thumb and forefinger to the sides of her nose. "We've been over this before. I know that maybe these conversations we've been having over the past few weeks might have given you a different idea, but you're still my prisoner. And even if I was feeling like sharing that information with you, I can't tell you things that I have no idea of myself."  
  
"You're lying to me," Liara said, her voice steady and unafraid. "There are things you're not telling me."  
  
Delaana slammed a fist down on the desk, nearly toppling over the bottle of alien ale. "And so what if I am, huh? What exactly are you going to do about it, huh?"  
  
"Have you been watching what your men have been doing to Shepard and Miranda over the past few weeks?" Liara asked her.

The asari merc fidgeted. "Not really, no," she said. And even if Liara didn't already know that was a lie, the way Delaana's eyes drifted away, just for a second, would have told Liara just how full of it she was.  
  
"Well, they've been escalating things a little," Liara said. "Now that Shepard and Miranda seem to be more cooperative, I think they're testing the limits of just how far they can go."  
  
Delaana said nothing to this, but any geniality she had shown when Liara had first entered was gone.  
  
"You know they brought the varren out again," Liara said. "Two of them this time. At least Roth blunted their claws this time, wanted to make sure you wouldn't go after him for scratching up the slaves. Of course, this was after a whole day of Shepard and Miranda being Roth's 'pets.' He made them walk on all fours, eat that green slop you feed them out of dishes on the floor. And of course, the day ended with the two bitches being introduced to their new mates."  
  
Delaana scowled. "There a point to telling me about all this? I don't give a damn what they're doing to those human sluts. I..."  
  
"But I do. And I want you to know all about it, so you can understand why I'm not talking to you anymore until you give me some answers," Liara raised her voice just a little, enough to make Delaana's eyes widen in surprise at her sudden forcefulness. "Because that was one of the less disgusting things they've made my friends do. Shall I tell you about the rest?"  
  
"Not necessary," Delaana said, her previously friendly voice now low and dangerous. "I know enough of the details. And now it's my turn to talk." Delaana poured herself another drink. "See, I did say that you could say whatever you wanted in this office. That I wouldn't punish you or your friends, no matter what. But I did forget one caveat, in that I'm only going to allow you this privilege as long as it entertains me. And see, this here, what you're doing... is not entertaining me." Taking a long swallow, Delaana kept her stern gaze focused on Liara. "So, again, I _can't_ tell you anything about the Broker's plans, and more importantly, I _won't_ tell you anything about his plans. So you can either give up on your little rebellion right here and right now, or I send you back to your cell and let you rot for the rest of your time here. Am I making myself clear here, pet?"  
  
"Very clear," Liara said. "Clear that you're bluffing."  
  
"You fucking..." Delaana spluttered. "How the fuck am I bluffing, huh? You forgetting who holds all the power here, you pretty little shit? Me, I do! So how could I be bluffing when I call the shots?"  
  
Liara watched Delaana rage, and just couldn't help herself. A smile started to form on her lips. "I won't lie to you, Delaana. You're smarter than I gave you credit for when I first met you. Not book-smart, of course, but crafty. But the one thing you are not, is subtle."  
  
Delaana didn't respond, so Liara just plowed ahead.  
  
"I first suspected it a few weeks ago, just before our appointment with Hawkins. And then it happened again just a few days later, and I knew."  
  
"Knew what, exactly?"  
  
Liara crossed her arms against her midsection, staring back at Delaana with a cocky expression. "It was when Yuri decided to give Miranda a little taste of his 'mixed cocktail,' as he called it. I'm sure you remember: all the men anally raped Shepard, and then Yuri made her hold all their loads inside her ass before releasing the whole sticky mess all across Miranda's face."  
  
"Fucking Yuri," Delaana shook her head in disgust. "Guy needs to find himself a new fetish, already."  
  
"But that's not the interesting part. No, that was when Yuri ordered Miranda to come over and give me a kiss. And just as she was about to press her dirty face to mine, was when you called all of the men to their quarters for snap inspections."  
  
Delaana scowled, and tried her best to sound casual as she asked, "What's your point?"  
  
"It took two more times after that, of you suddenly requesting their presence elsewhere just when I was about to get involved, before even the idiots you work with got the hint. Since then, they barely even look at me as they rape my friends. If I didn't know any better, it almost seems like you're... protecting me."

The laugh that Delaana barked out was so comically faked, it almost made Liara laugh right back. "Protecting you? Keep dreaming. Yeah, I'll admit, I've been calling the men away when they start getting close to you. But that's just because I can't trust those morons not to break my one rule and start putting their hands on you. Or like Solvitis, trying to make you think he's some kind of nice guy when he's a fucking monster." She shrugged. "That's all it is, pet. Nothing more."  
  
Liara shook her head. "No, I don't think that's it. In fact, I'm willing to bet on it."  
  
"Bet? And what exactly do you have to bet, huh? You got a gold watch up your ass that I don't know about?"  
  
"What I'm betting is extremely precious to me. The only thing more precious in my life right now is Shepard. And what I'm betting... is these conversations." For the first time, Liara broke her eye contact with Delaana, looking down at the floor. "I'm not going to lie. The time I've spent in this office the last few weeks, talking to you... it's something I look forward to every day. It's the one chance I have to try and forget the terrible things I've seen here, and just pretend I'm having a normal conversation with another person."  
  
Liara gave her seething captor a confident smile. "But that's the thing about a conversation, is that it requires two participants. And I don't think I'm the only one who enjoys this time together. Who considers these talks one of the most precious things to them. Isn't that right?"  
  
Delaana scoffed. "Yeah, sure. You're mildly amusing, that's all. You keep on boring me like this, I'll send you back to your cell, no problem."  
  
"You're full of shit," Liara said back, and kept going before Delaana could protest. "You think I haven't noticed? When I get going on a topic, I've seen the way you watch me. Those big wide eyes, so eager to absorb new knowledge. That big grin you get when you get a chance to demonstrate your knowledge of a topic to me. You've spent your whole life around the scum of the galaxy. I bet I'm the first person you've ever talked to who is able to carry on a discussion about anything other than killing and raping. And it would absolutely kill you to have to send me away, wouldn’t it?"  
  
Delaana said nothing.  
  
"So that's what I'm betting. I'm willing to sacrifice our time together, go back to sitting in my cell with nothing to look forward to except watching the people I care about being raped into submission, if putting that on the line gets me some answers. So now I pose the options back to you: either you tell me what you know about what the Broker's plans are for me and my friends, or I go back to my cell and you can try having intense discussions about history and philosophy with human filth like Bowers. Am _I_ making myself clear here?"  
  
For a moment, Liara was sure she had pushed it too far. Delaana's eyes were dangerously narrowed, and the clenched fist she rested on the top of her desk was shaking with anger.  
  
"I... can't," Delaana finally exhaled. "You stupid... you know that I can't." She looked up over Liara's shoulder, at the camera pivoting back and forth on the ceiling. "Dammit, dammit, why did you have to pull this shit now? When there's so little time left..."  
  
Liara leaned forward with a gasp. "What are you talking about? What's going to happen?"  
  
"Nothing!" Delaana yelled. "Get out of here, right now! Go, before..."  
  
"No, I'm not leaving!" Liara jumped to her feet, moving to block Delaana from fleeing from behind her desk. "Tell me, what's he going to do to us? Please!"  
  
Liara felt a chill go through her as she saw the expression that Delaana now wore: fear. "Dammit, for your sake and mine, just shut up and leave! If he thinks I've told you..."  
  
"You're afraid of him?" Liara filled her voice with disdain. "The asari maiden who killed a justicar all by herself?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm fucking afraid of him," Delaana said. "I mean, he beat Shepard, the damn hero of the Citadel. He beat _you_ , for fuck's sake, and you're... you're... you're damn right I'm afraid of him."

Liara put her hands on Delaana's shoulders, forgetting about the potential punishment for such a transgression in the heat of the moment. "Please, just tell me. If this goes on much longer, I'm going to be about as much fun to talk to as a slug! I need something, anything!"  
  
Reaching up, Delaana placed a hand on Liara's on her shoulder. "He's... he's building a..."  
  
And it was just then that all of the lights in Delaana's office flickered and died, leaving them in pitch black.


	14. Mole Hunt

Those few seconds in darkness, all Liara could hear was the sound of Delaana's breath, rapid heaving gasps against her face. The hand that she had placed on Liara's shoulder gripped tightly into her flesh, nails digging painfully into her skin.  
  
"Goddess, please. I... I don't want..." For a moment there, Liara was sure that a third woman had entered the room. Because the utterly terrified sound in Delaana's voice was unlike anything she'd ever heard in the weeks she'd been talking to her captor.  
  
Almost as soon as the lights went out, however, they all flared back to life. Liara blinked as her vision returned, and she saw the panicked look on Delaana's face.  
  
"G... get out of here!" Delaana said, the asari's harsh expression returning. "Go back to your cell, right now!" The hand on Liara's shoulder shoved her away, and Liara quickly made her exit out of the office door.  
  
But instead of leaving right away, she lingered, outside the door and out of view. Through the open doorway, she heard Delaana open up a comm-link. "Yuri, what the fuck is going on?"  
  
"I don't know!" said the nervous voice on the other end of the line. "All of a sudden we just lost power for a few seconds. Some sort of fluctuation in the system."  
  
A power fluctuation. Liara felt a thrill run through her body. She had almost given up hope that Solvitis would find a way to get them out of there. But if he had been the cause of the power outage, then it was possible he was able to get the message off to his team. Maybe rescue was coming for them after all.  
  
"Fucking... you know what would have happened to this ship if that power had stayed off just a little while longer?" Delaana barked furiously to Yuri. "Find out what just happened, or your next patrol duty will be on the ship's hull... without fucking oxygen."  
  
Delaana cut the link, and things inside the office were silent for a moment. Liara leaned against the wall, remaining as quiet as possible. Soon, she could hear Delaana letting out harsh breaths, punctuating by muffled thumps that sounded like a fist being pounded into a desk.  
  
"Fuck... fuck..." Liara heard Delaana muttering between gasps. Her voice sounded weak, and drained of all the anger and volume she had used on Yuri seconds earlier.  
  
After several minutes with nothing further heard, Liara padded her way back to the prison block. Thankfully, Shepard and Miranda were alone when she returned, as Liara was finding it difficult to disguise her glee at the latest developments.  
  
Once she was back in the comforting arms of Shepard, she quickly whispered to her. "It's happening. That power fluctuation... it was Solvitis, I know it."  
  
"Are you sure?" Shepard eventually answered. Over the past few days, conversations with her had been halting affairs. Shepard seemed to take a second or two before every response, as if her mind was working in slow-motion. "Could it have just been a... a technical malfunction or something?"  
  
"No, it had to have been him," Liara whispered to her. "How long have we been on this ship, and nothing like this has happened before? The message is out. Now we just have to hang in there until rescue comes!"  
  
"I don't know if I..." Shepard started to say, before the door to their cell slid open.

"Get up, all of you," Delaana said. It took Liara a second to realize what had given her such an odd feeling: the asari merc leader had _never_ set foot in their cell before now. That giddy feeling Liara had been having immediately went away, replaced with a trace of dread. Something was wrong.  
  
Delaana's expression was cold as she gestured. "This way," she commanded them, and turned without making sure they followed.  
  
But of course, they did. Delaana's stride was wide and determined, and Liara and her fellow prisoners had a little trouble keeping up. That fear Liara had felt started to grow, as Delaana's path led them into an area of the Broker's ship that Liara had never been to before: not during their failed attempt to overthrow the Broker, nor during their month of captivity.  
  
Eventually, they found themselves in front of a closed door. And when Delaana triggered the lock and it slid open, Liara felt her heart sink further.  
  
It was _that_ room. Even from the grainy videos on the vidscreen in their cell, Liara recognized it immediately. The wide open, empty room that their captors used when they needed more space to indulge their sick thrills. Liara had never been into this room, and the first thing that hit her was the smell. So many bodily fluids had been spilled in this room: human, turian, batarian and varren, and obviously nobody paid much attention to cleaning it properly. There were dark brown stains in various spots on the floor, and the room absolutely reeked.  
  
But before Liara even had a chance to gag at the terrible stench, her attention was drawn to the far end of the room from where they entered. All of the mercs in Delaana's team were lined up at attention against the wall. Even Solvitis, who Liara hadn't seen for weeks, was there. All of them looked a bit nervous, and that just made Liara even more afraid.  
  
"Stand there," Delaana coldly directed the three women, pointing them to a wall perpendicular to the mercs. "Don't move a muscle until I tell you otherwise."   
  
They obeyed, the three of them adopting a posture similar to the mercs without prompting: hands behind their backs, standing straight at attention. It probably looked ridiculous: the three naked women standing up straight like soldiers. But dignity had gone out the window weeks ago.  
  
The door slid shut, and Delaana stood in the center of the room, stern eyes flicking back and forth between her prisoners and her underlings.  
  
After a few seconds, Delaana reached into the holster at her side, retrieved her Carnifex, and fired a single shot into the ceiling. Everyone on the room flinched, but remained standing at attention.  
  
"You hear that sound?" Delaana growled to the room, bringing the gun down to her side but not returning it to its holster. "Does it frighten you? It should, because before this night is over, it's going to be the last sound that one of you hears."  
  
"She knows," Liara immediately thought. "Oh, Goddess, she knows." Her eyes drifted over to Solvitis, who immediately saw her look and narrowed his own eyes, his mandibles twitching with anger. Liara immediately got the hint, and returned to staring straight ahead.  
  
"A few weeks ago, the Shadow Broker received a coded message intercepted by one of his associates," Delaana said, pacing around the room with her gun at the ready. "Took him a while to decode it, and turned out a little garbled once we were finished. But we got enough to know the general idea: the sender was offering congratulations, that the receiver had been able to successfully infiltrate a mercenary team as a mole." She paused before adding, " _My_ mercenary team."  
  
Liara struggled to keep the fear off her face. Not now. Not when they were so close to escape.   
  
But something about this seemed off: if Delaana knew Solvitis was a mole, he'd already be dead right now. So why these intimidation tactics?

Delaana focused her attention on the men in front of her. "The Broker was trying to determine who the message was sent to, but we've been having no luck so far. This little glitch we had, though, has forced me to use more direct methods." She glared at the line of nervous mercs, her fingers tightly gripping the Carnifex in her hand. "See, the Broker's systems may not be able to block outgoing messages when they're out of commission, but whichever one of you sent out that extranet message wasn't nearly as clever as he thought. We may not know who did it and where it went, but somebody sent something out during the blackout."  
  
The merc leader watched all of them, waiting for some sort of reaction. Liara shot a quick glance at Solvitis, not lingering for too long for fear of breaking his cover... and not wanting to see on his face that he knew his cover was already broken. From what she saw, though, Solvitis wasn't acting any more nervous than the rest of the team.   
  
"So whichever one of you sent that message... congratulations. You finally forced the Broker's hand," Delaana bent her arm and pointed her pistol up at the ceiling. "And we're not leaving this room until I've found out who the mole is, and he's lying dead at my fucking feet."  
  
Letting this sink in with her team, Delaana turned her attention to the prisoners. "Anything in particular you'd like to tell me before we begin, ladies?" Sauntering over to them, she raised the barrel of her gun to place it under each of their chins, one at a time. "Any of these men said anything to you? Done anything suspicious I need to know about?" She stopped at Liara, and Liara noticed her finger drift off the trigger as she pointed it at Liara. "If so, tell me now. Because if I find out later that you've been hiding things, I might have to find out what other secrets you might have been keeping from me." Bringing her free hand up, Delaana placed it against Liara's cheek. "And I promise... it will be painful," she added.   
  
When none of the women said anything, Delaana turned her attention back to the men. "Right, then. I'm going to give you assholes one chance to get out of this. To spare you all the pain of what's to come." She stepped down the line of men, glaring at each man in turn. Hawkins stared at the floor, the slight medic looking anxious. Bowers, as usual in Delaana's presence, seemed to shrink down to half his size as she passed. Okoru, Solvitis, Roth, Yuri, Grell... all of them flinched as she passed.  
  
"See, I barely know any of you shits," Delaana said as she reached the end of the line. "Grell, you've been on my team the longest, and yet you'd only been with me two months before we got hired for this assignment. So, as far as I know, any of you could be the mole." Moving to stand in front of Grell, Delaana glared directly into a pair of eyes. "So, Grell. We'll start with you. You have anything you want to tell me?"  
  
Grell shook his head. "I didn't send the message, I swear!"  
  
"Then who did?" Delaana asked. "If you know something, Grell, you'd better spill it." She brought up her empty hand and held it inches from the batarian's face. "Before I go looking myself."  
  
"I don't know who did it. I was in the..." Grell babbled, up until Delaana's fingers pressed against his forehead. His words were cut off by a guttural scream, as Delaana's eyes went black and she melded with the unfortunate batarian. The rest of the mercs watched as their compatriot spasmed and shook. Meanwhile, Delaana grinned, as the euphoric sensation of melding filled her.   
  
Liara thought back to Miranda, who had only been in contact with Delaana for a few brief seconds before the Ardat-Yakshi had taken her pleasure. And that had been enough to send the perfect human into unconsciousness.   
  
But this time, it seemed like minutes passed as the merc leader plunged through Grell's mind, searching for any secrets buried deep inside his consciousness.  
  
Finally, after Grell's voice had given out from screaming, and only strangled gasps were coming out of him, Delaana released the meld, and the hardened batarian merc collapsed to the ground. If it weren't for the raspy breaths he was taking, Liara would have been sure Grell had been killed by Delaana's merge.

Delaana, meanwhile, shuddered in wicked pleasure. "Well, it seems old four-eyes here is on the level." She turned her attention to the next in line, Yuri looking down in horror at his comrade before snapping his attention up to Delaana's approach. "Yuri. You handle the engineering duties around here. You'd be in the perfect position to cause that power fluctuation. Anything you feel like sharing before we do this the hard way?"  
  
"I'm not the mole, I swear!" Yuri cried out. "I wasn't even in the... gggAAAAAHHHHH!" the burnt-faced human threw his head back and shrieked as Delaana's hand pressed against his temple.  
  
As Delaana burrowed into Yuri's mind, Liara looked down the line at Solvitis, the turian nervously shuffling from one foot to the other. "When Delaana reaches him," she thought, "it's all over. There's no way she won't find out what's going on."  
  
She tried to come up with some sort of distraction, a way to interrupt what was going on. For a moment, she considered throwing out a false accusation against one of the other mercs. Claim that Hawkins or Okoru or somebody else further down the line was really the mole.  
  
But it wouldn't work. From the look of glee that came across Delaana's face as she tortured her underlings, the asari leader would no doubt meld with the accused anyway, and find out the truth of Liara's lies. And then they'd be right back where they started.  
  
She wondered if perhaps Solvitis might be able to disarm Delaana while she was occupied with one of the other mercs. But the turian was making no moves, simply standing in place and nervously waiting his turn. He had to know that he was dead the second Delaana entered his mind. Why in the name of the Goddess wasn't he doing anything?  
  
Yuri finally fell to the floor, spasmodically twitching. Delaana scowled down at him. "Fuck, Yuri, you're even sicker than I thought. Your own sister, really?" Moving down the line, Delaana gave Roth a wide, toothy grin. "So, varren boy. Ready for me to find out what you do with your animals when nobody's watching? Or do you have something to tell me?"  
  
"It.. it's Solvitis!" Roth yelled in panic. "I saw him messing with a power junction a few hours ago! I was going to tell you, but..."  
  
"He's a liar," Solvitis said, a bit loud but still managing to sound calm. "Meld with him, Delaana. You'll see that he's full of shit."  
  
Roth shook his head. "It's true! I saw..." Roth nearly bit off his own tongue as Delaana's fingers found his face, and his jaw clamped shut to try and cut off the screams. As Roth quivered and shook, Liara stared at Solvitis, trying to figure out what the turian's game plan was. Or if he even had one.  
  
She tried to console herself. "Even if he's caught," she thought, "hopefully his team is still coming. And maybe they'll do better against the Broker and his men than we managed to."  
  
As Roth finally tumbled back against the wall, Delaana chuckled. "Well, you were right, Solvitis. He was lying."   
  
She moved to stand in front of the turian and crossed her arms. "But unfortunately for you, he also wasn't the mole. And just because he didn't see you causing the power fluctuation... doesn't mean you didn't do it. So... you have anything to get off your chest?"   
  
Delaana moved in close, her face inches away from Solvitis. Everyone in the room that wasn't collapsed unconscious on the floor watched in nervous anticipation.  
  
Solvitis stared back at Delaana, his mouth open, but no excuses coming out. Finally, he let out a rasping laugh. "Okay, fine. You want to know the truth? It was all..."  
  
And just then, Liara felt a hand grasp onto her forearm. Before she even knew what was happening, she could hear an omni-blade flare to life, and a burning sensation press against her torso.  
  
"Okay, I think that's about enough," Hawkins called out to the room. "One wrong move, and I gut this asari bitch where she stands!"


	15. Unwanted Departures

Delaana and the mercs – the ones not unconscious on the floor – stared in stunned silence, as the quiet medic held Liara by the arm with one hand. The human's other arm snaked around Liara's waist to brandish an omni-blade against her bare torso. Liara winced as the red-hot weapon smoldered less than an inch from her flesh.  
  
"Drop it," Hawkins warned Delaana, as she started to bring her arm around to aim her pistol at him. "Slowly, no sudden movements. I even see you think about flaring up those biotics of yours, and the Broker's favorite slave gets dissected."  
  
"You're making a big mistake, Hawkins," Delaana gravely muttered, as she tossed the pistol to the floor. "You think you're getting off this ship alive?"  
  
"Oh, I'm sure of it," Liara could feel Hawkins's spittle spraying onto her shoulder from behind her, as the human started to drag her by the arm towards the door to the room. "Because you wouldn't dare risk me killing your little sweetie here, would you?" He leaned his head down to hiss into Liara's ear. "All those hours you two have spent together, and I bet she hasn't even told you, has she? What the Broker's been planning for you and your friends? Why he's been having you-"  
  
"Damn you, Hawkins!" Delaana yelled out, cutting off Hawkins's taunts. "Even if you make it to a shuttle, you know the Broker will find you. I don't know who you're working for, but if you think they can contend with _him_ , you're completely fucking mistaken."  
  
This sent Hawkins into hysterical laughter. "You mean... you really didn't know, did you? And here I thought you had everything figured out before we even stepped in the room. But there I go... giving alien filth like you too much credit."  
  
"What are you..." Delaana started to say, before her eyes narrowed and she snarled. "Of course. Cerberus."  
  
"This assignment was such a fucking chore," Hawkins said, nearly to the door now with Liara. "Having to pal around with all you aliens and alien sympathizers. But it's all going to be worth it when I come back to the Illusive Man with this intel. A full description of the Shadow Broker's ship and personnel on board, its last known location, and let's not forget..." Hawkins shook Liara roughly, "Someone who's actually seen the fucker up close and personal."  
  
Liara stopped in her tracks, resisting Hawkins's attempts to keep pulling her out of the room. "Wait," she muttered, looking over at Shepard and Miranda standing stunned against the wall. She didn't like the idea of delivering Shepard and Miranda back to the Illusive Man after what happened at the Collector base, but anywhere was preferable to here. If Hawkins were to take them _all_ with him...  
  
Hawkins saw where she was looking, and gave a low chuckle. "Oh, them? Sorry, I don't have time to worry about a couple of traitors. If they're lucky, maybe the Illusive Man will be merciful to them when we get back here with an assault team."  
  
No. She couldn't leave them behind. Shepard was watching the whole scene unfold helplessly, and Liara couldn't help but think about a similar moment from a month ago, the one that had sealed their fates. How horrible it had to be for Shepard, to be once again watching Liara in danger and not being able to do a thing about it.  
  
And then Liara remembered something else, the weight that she had been carrying for so long that she had almost forgotten it was there. "The collar," she hissed at Hawkins. "If you take me off the ship, it's going to explode!"  
  
"Seriously?" Hawkins asked, not seeming too disturbed at the prospect. "That's disconcerting." He clucked his tongue in slight annoyance. "Well, I guess you'll have to tell me all about your fight with the Shadow Broker while we're heading toward the shuttle bay. Of course, it's only a few doors away... so you should probably talk fast."

She heard the door to the room slide open behind her, and Liara knew that if Hawkins got her out the door, it was all over. She would die, whether from her captor's blade or the collar around her neck. And with her dead, the Shadow Broker would have no reason to keep Shepard and Miranda alive. She had to fight, not for her own life, but the lives of the people she cared about.  
  
"Stop struggling, dammit," Hawkins snapped at her, his grip loosening on her arm as she wriggled against his grasp.  
  
"Liara, no!" Delaana cried out, as Liara gave one last wrench against Hawkins's grip. The human's fingers slipped away from her arm, and too late Liara realized that her momentum was carrying her forward. Right into the heated edge of Hawkins's omni-blade.   
  
Liara cried out as the blade cut deep into her waist. She had suffered wounds in combat before, but always with body armor or at least some sort of clothing to protect her. But with no such luxuries this time around, the searing-hot blade cutting into her bare flesh was excruciating. She clutched at her side in agony as she fell away from Hawkins to the floor.  
  
Hawkins didn't have time to react to the loss of his hostage, before Delaana thrust out her hand, a blue field of light surrounding her. Hawkins suddenly found himself held in place, a mass effect field rendering him immobile.  
  
From her position on the floor, Liara watched Delaana bend down to retrieve her discarded pistol. Walking up to the helpless Hawkins, she pointed the barrel straight between his eyes and waited. Hawkins's eyes were wide and terrified, knowing what was about to come and powerless to take action. Delaana stood rigid, gun aimed at Hawkins's face, her expression cold and merciless.   
  
Delaana could have dismissed the stasis field at any time, but Liara knew that Delaana wouldn't let the traitor to her team off that easily. She would make him stare death in the face for as long as possible, make him live his last moments in anticipation of the shot that would end his life.  
  
Finally, the stasis field faded, and Delaana pulled the trigger before Hawkins could even move a muscle. Hawkins collapsed backwards, dead before he reached the floor. Walking up to the corpse, Delaana planted a boot on his chest and fired again into the corpse's head. Again, and again, until there was little left of the human's skull but shattered fragments. Her teeth bared in anger, Delaana kept pulling the trigger until the heat warning sounded, and the weapon emitted nothing but clicks.  
  
Turning away from the dead body, Delaana crouched in front of Liara. She stared down at the wound on Liara's torso and winced. "Oh, goddess. Stay with me, pet," Delaana called out, though her voice seemed like it was miles away. Pulling her hand away from her side, Liara brought it up to her fading vision and realized her fingers were covered in blood.  
  
"So it's over," she thought to herself, as she felt herself fading backwards into the black. "I'm so sorry, Shepard. Sorry I..."

* * *  
  
The next thing she remembered after that was staring up at a bare white ceiling. "Am... am I..."  
  
"A total idiot? Yes, you are," said a voice to her side. Liara turned her head to the side to see Delaana sitting on a chair, beside the cot Liara was currently laying on in the medbay. "And now that we're minus one medic, I'm the one who has to clean up after your foolishness."  
  
Looking down, Liara saw Delaana's hand, gently rubbing medi-gel on her wound. "Might leave a mark," she heard Delaana said, "but you should be pretty much healed by tomorrow."  
  
Liara sighed. For a brief moment, as she had slipped into nothingness and believed herself near death, she had felt... relief. It was selfish of her, but for just a second, she had welcomed the release from this nightmare. She felt terrible. The thought of leaving Shepard behind in this horrible place almost made her retch.  
  
"Idiot," Delaana muttered, as she finished sealing up Liara's wound.  
  
"Sorry if my death might have caused you an inconvenience," Liara glared at Delaana.  
  
"I wasn't talking about you," Delaana responded, uncharacteristically low-key. "Out of all of them, Hawkins was the one I was least sure about. Always thought something was a little off about him. But I needed somebody who knew more about medicine than 'slap some medi-gel on it,' and he fit the bill." She let out an aggravated grunt. "And now he's dead, and we have no damn way of knowing what message he sent out to the Illusive Man. The Shadow Broker is monitoring Cerberus communications, seeing if we've been compromised, but who knows? Could wake in a few days to find a human strike team knocking at the bulkhead. And it's all my damn fault."  
  
The tone of self-recrimination in Delaana's voice was so strong, Liara almost felt the insane urge to assure her, "It's okay, Cerberus didn't get the message. It was Solvitis, sending for _his_ strike team to come and take down the Shadow Broker, and kill you and all your men." Luckily, that thought passed quickly.  
  
"It's funny," Delaana mused, more to herself than to Liara. "When those lights went out... I was sure that was it. That another justicar or someone else had come for me, and I'd be dead within seconds."  
  
Liara remembered when the lights had come on, and she had seen the look of pure terror on Delaana's face. The look of an asari fearing for her life.  
  
"When I first went on the run... I stowed away in the cargo bay of a freighter," Delaana said, her tone turning confessional. "Squeezed in tight with all those suitcases and boxes... and no light. So dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. It was like I was buried alive. You know how long that flight was?"  
  
Liara shook her head.  
  
"Two days. Two days in that pitch black, certain every second that a hand would come out of the darkness, pull me out of there and take me back to live the rest of my days behind locked doors," Delaana said, her eyes distant. "Ever since then... I tend to always keep a light on."  
  
She tried her best, but eventually Liara couldn't help cracking a smile. "Delaana, the baddest Ardat-Yakshi mercenary to ever live... afraid of the dark?" she asked incredulously.  
  
"Yeah, laugh it up," Delaana said, and Liara was surprised to see the mercenary lightly smile as well. "It's silly, I know. Like all those poems I used to read. All those flowery verses about green fields and love that would last for centuries... parts of me that I should have left behind a long time ago. But it's a lot easier than it sounds."

And for the first time since she had placed under the captivity of this woman, Liara saw it all fall away. The years of built-up anger and bravado, the persona that this woman had put on to prove herself the superior of anyone who would challenge her, all of it just melted. Sitting by her bed wasn't her brutal jailer, but the scared teenager who had fled in the night from a life of captivity, and who'd never stopped running since.  
  
"Listen to me, pet," Delaana said, her tone soft as she leaned in close. She kept her voice low, underneath the hum of electronics inside the med-bay. "We may not have much time left. The Shadow Broker's building some sort of... facility, and it sounds like it's almost finished. I don't know much more than that, except that once it's complete, you and your friends are going to be taken there." Delaana pursed her lips. "And considering how little the Broker is sharing with me, I'm not sure that me and my team are coming along for the ride."  
  
This distressed Liara, even more than it was obviously distressing Delaana. The mystery of this "facility" and its purpose was bad enough. But Liara had no idea how long it would take Solvitis's team to arrive at the Broker's ship. If she and her fellow prisoners were moved somewhere else before rescue arrived, and Solvitis was left with the rest of Delaana's team to guard the Broker's ship...  
  
"You were right," Delaana said quietly, a wry chuckle in her voice. "Of course you were. You're always so damned right about everything. I have been watching out for you. Bad enough that these fuckers force you to watch them sticking their cocks up your friends; I'm not going to let them drag you into their twisted games. Not when you're so much fun to talk to." Delaana's left hand fell away from the healing wound on Liara's stomach, while her right reached up to gently lay on Liara's shoulder. "But once the facility is up and running... I don't know what I'm going to do, pet. It's just like you said: I'm not thrilled with the idea of not having you to talk to anymore. You're... nice to have around."  
  
Liara remained silent, not wanting to say anything that would make Delaana stop spilling secrets to her in this unguarded moment.  
  
"I'm going to try my best, though, pet," Delaana said, trying to sound reassuring. "Don't know how much the Shadow Broker is going to trust me now, with a traitor in my own house like this. But I'm going to do whatever it takes to show him that I’m trustworthy. Hell, I'll put a bullet through all the rest of them, Bowers on down, if it shows the Shadow Broker that he can put his faith in me," the tone of Delaana's voice made it sound like this notion wasn't all that unappealing to her. "And hopefully, once he moves you on to this new prison, I'll have his ear... or whatever the hell he has... enough to make sure that I'll be able to keep watching out for you. But if that doesn't happen..." Delaana started, as if she had something encouraging to say to Liara. But the silence that followed told Liara more than any words could. Delaana eventually let out a melancholy sigh. "Let's not worry about that for now. Rest for now, pet. I'll come by later to make sure the wound is mending properly."  
  
For a moment, Delaana didn't move away, her warm hand stroking Liara's shoulder. Finally, the merc abruptly rose to her feet and charged out of the med-bay, leaving Liara to fall into a troubled sleep.


	16. Meet the Team

The next day, Liara's wound was healed enough to be returned back to her cell. There was still a light blue line running up her torso where Hawkins's omniblade had cut into her flesh, but it wasn't Liara's first scar. "And probably not your last," she thought to herself bitterly, as she returned to find Shepard and Miranda in their usual spots.  
  
Shepard was quick to stand and embrace her, and for once Liara was able to find comfort in the arms of her lover, for the first time in days. The despair she had fallen into over the past month had been lifted somewhat, by the hopeful thought of what the loss of power had meant.  
  
Even with the revelation of Hawkins as a traitor, she was sure that the Cerberus operative was not the one who had triggered the power fluctuation. It was Solvitis. It had to have been. Now all they had to do was wait until their rescue arrived.  
  
Still, as the day went on, Liara began to worry about what was to come. On the way to the mess hall for the day's meal, Liara saw several of the guards patrolling the hallways, weapons at the ready and on alert for any sign of trouble. Grell, their chosen mess hall guard for the day, simply dropped off their food and waited against the wall until they were finished. Each of the captives stole glances at their guard, waiting for him to make the first move on one of the women, but he simply stood and glanced back and forth between the two tables, saying nothing. He wore a sour expression the whole time, and Liara wondered if he was still feeling the effects of his encounter with Delaana the previous day. The pain of melding with an Ardat-Yakshi, even one that was low on the spectrum, was said to be excruciating. Liara couldn't help but feel a little satisfaction in knowing that some of the men who had been torturing her friends had gotten some of that pain in return. She only wished that Bowers had gotten his turn, as well.  
  
After their meal, Liara received no summons to Delaana's office on the way back to the cell. She and the rest of the prisoners spent the rest of the night without incident, with no late night summons to pleasure their captor. And for once, Liara was able to sleep without being tormented by nightmares of the day's ghastly events.  
  
When the same sequence of events repeated the next day, Liara realized that the Shadow Broker and Delaana were taking no chances. No doubt they believed the same as Liara, that the message that had been sent out during the power fluctuation was a summons to some other party. And that those people might be on their way to the Shadow Broker's ship at that very moment.  
  
Liara had no idea how many comrades Solvitis had summoned, and what sort of armaments they had at their disposal. But she felt confident that they'd have better luck against the Broker and his men than she and Shepard had had. After all, the three of them had fought through dozens of mercs to finally face off against the Broker, while Solvitis and his team would only have a handful of opponents to contend with.  
  
Solvitis and his team would win. Liara didn't want to think about what would happen if they didn't, and their last hope of escape was taken out of her grasp. She had to believe it would work.  
  
Several more days passed, with no sign of the mercs returning to their abuse of Shepard and Miranda, and no summons to Delaana's office. Delaana... Liara thought back to that day in the medbay as she sat with Shepard in their cell, at the end of their fourth day without incident.   
  
It was hard to reconcile the image of the cruel, callous merc leader from her month of captivity, to the woman she had seen in that moment of weakness. Thinking about Delaana made Liara picture in her mind what would happen when Solvitis's team arrived. No doubt Delaana would go out fighting; Liara didn't see the fierce merc surrendering herself to anyone. Liara found herself feeling somewhat melancholy at the thought, and had to remind herself that this woman had shown no remorse over the torture and rape being carried out by her men.

"Just because the woman has spared you from the abuse doesn't make her a good person," Liara thought to herself. "Whatever happens, Delaana deserves what comes to her."   
  
It sounded good, but why did Liara still feel those pangs of sorrow at the thought of Delaana's death? It reminded her of a human concept she had heard of during her university days: Stockholm syndrome, they called it. Where the captive comes to sympathize and even defend their captors.  
  
Was that what had happened to her? All those long talks, that time spent with her... had Liara somehow come to see this vicious criminal as her friend?  
  
Liara turned to look at Shepard, leaning against the wall and staring straight forward with that emotionless, dead-eyed stare. Staring at this woman, this remarkable human who she loved more than life itself, she felt her doubts melt away. "If it meant she'd be freed from this, I'd watch Delaana die a thousand times," Liara thought to herself. "Goddess, I'd kill her myself, whatever it would take to ensure Shepard makes it out of this."  
  
But she couldn't help but dwell on it. The image popped into her mind of that scared young asari, shivering in the dark of a cargo hold. A girl forced to leave home against her will, alone and terrified. She thought of all the talks they had shared, and those sparks of intelligence Delaana had shown beneath all the tough façade. What would her life have been like, if she hadn't been unfortunate enough to be born an Ardat-Yakshi? What would...  
  
Her thoughts were interrupted by the door to their cell sliding open. Even with the lights dimmed in the room for them to sleep, she could make out the distinctive outline of Bowers's punk haircut in silhouette.   
  
She tensed, fearing that their respite from the abuse was over, and that Shepard and Miranda were about to be returned to their horrid routine. Nervously, she waited for Bowers to step into the room, and for him to reach down to his belt.  
  
But he just stood there. She couldn't see the expression on his face in the dark, couldn't figure out what exactly he was doing. Was he just checking on them? No, there was a vidscreen outside the cell door for him to do that. What was...  
  
Bowers moved forward, and at first Liara thought he had tripped on his way into the cell. But when he limply collapsed onto the cell floor, she finally saw his face: cold and expressionless.  
  
Which probably had something to do with the knife hilt protruding from his back.  
  
"Get up," she heard someone whisper. Another silhouette was at the door. This one distinctly turian.  
  
"Get up," Solvitis said again. "They're here. It's time to go."  
  
* * *

They dashed through the hallways of the ship, Solvitis aiming an assault rifle down every corridor before giving his naked and frightened charges the signal to move.  
  
"Where are the rest of the guards?" Liara asked the turian, her bare, unfettered breasts bouncing uncomfortably as she ran. Goddess, she couldn't wait to get out of here and finally put some clothes on.  
  
"Asleep," Solvitis explained, not looking at Liara as he scanned the hallway ahead of them. "Bowers and I were on late shift guard duty. Lucky timing my team arrived when they did. Would have had to sneak out and kill two guards, otherwise."  
  
Liara nearly tripped over one of the cables spilling across the floor. "So your team is here right now?" she asked as she recovered her footing.  
  
"Within minutes," Solvitis said. "We should reach the shuttle bay just a little bit before they dock."  
  
Solvitis gestured them to duck behind a low wall, and then triggered a nearby doorway. As Liara stood up, she stared up at a nearby wall fixture and frowned. "Why are there no alarms?"  
  
"What's that?" Solvitis glanced over his shoulder for a moment, before continuing to lead them toward the shuttle bay.  
  
"The Shadow Broker has cameras all over this ship," Liara said. "He has to know what's going on. Why are there no alarms?"  
  
He gave her a funny look. "Beats me. Guess even a yugh... or whatever you said he was, guess even they have to sleep sometimes." His mandibles flared as he added. "What, would you rather there _were_ alarms? Turn this into a real gunfight, get you or your human friends shot?"  
  
"No, of course not," Liara said, following behind the turian and trying her best to ignore the doubts she was starting to feel.  
  
 _"And he just loved to take hostages. Especially asari. Witness records say he would sweet-talk them, play the part of the misunderstood criminal with a heart of gold. And then, once they trusted him completely, that's when he would tie them down, rape them until he'd had his fill, and then start cutting off pieces of their flesh."_  
  
Delaana's words played back in her mind, bringing a frown to her face. "It's his cover identity," she thought to herself. "All just a way to get himself in with the Shadow Broker."  
  
But something just didn't seem right about all this. Was this really a rescue after all?  
  
"How do you know they're here?" Liara asked Solvitis, as he opened the door to the shuttle bay and ushered them all inside.  
  
"What's with all the questions?" Solvitis said, scanning the room with his assault rifle. "My rescue attempt not meeting with your approval?"  
  
Liara padded into the shuttle bay, the cold chill across her skin feeling like the dark and empty space outside the nearby window was oozing its way into the ship.  
  
"I... just want to make sure they're going to be here," Liara covered, keeping her eyes locked on Solvitis as Shepard and Miranda entered the room behind them. "We only get one shot at this, after all."  
  
"It's fine, it's fine," Solvitis quickly, completing his survey of the shuttle bay and turning to face her. "One of my team made an... an anonymous extranet post. Coded, letting me know the exact day and time they were going to arrive."  
  
Liara gave him a suspicious look. "And the Shadow Broker wouldn't notice you reading that posting? Wouldn't be able to decode what you were up to?"  
  
"Come on, what's with the third degree, here?" Solvitis asked, glancing over at the window out into space. "It was a posting on a damn porn site, okay? Shadow Broker saw me browsing something like that, he'd probably just thinking I was jerking it to hanar porn. Okay? Satisfied?"  
  
She gave him a curt nod. "You'll forgive me for being suspicious. After all, it was several weeks ago that you said you'd be setting off that energy fluctuation that very night. I just worry that maybe the rest of your plan may run into similar snags."

"Listen, I'm doing this out of the goodness of my own damn heart here, alright?" Solvitis snapped at her. "You want to know what took so long? Delaana was up my ass ever since our little bathroom visit. Watching me like a damn hawk, all because I took the risk of letting you know about my plan to take the Shadow Broker down. It was only a few days ago she finally let up enough that I was able to trigger the power fluctuation. All because I wanted to help you." Turning away from Liara, he gestured back toward the hangar bay door. "But if you don't trust me, the door is right..."  
  
She moved in a flash, almost scaring herself with how quickly she was able to move, even after a month of being mostly sedentary. Her hand found the grip of the pistol hanging at Solvitis's side, and before he could even turn back to her, the barrel of it was pressed against the turian's temple.  
  
"Drop the rifle," Liara snapped at him. "Make a move to do anything else and I shoot."  
  
"Liara, what are you doing?" Shepard said, a note of surprise momentarily bursting through her dull, lethargic tone of recent days.  
  
"There is no shuttle, is there?" Liara said to Solvitis. "This is all your plan to get us alone. Have your fun with us." She spat the words out bitterly, almost as angry at herself as she was at the turian in front of her.  
  
Solvitis dropped his annoyed tone almost immediately. "Calm down, Dr. T'Soni," he said. "I'm putting the rifle down." Crouching slowly, he laid the assault rifle down on the cool steel of the hangar deck. "I know you've been through a lot..."  
  
"Just stop it," Liara snapped at him. "Goddess, how could I have been so stupid? This has all been part of the Shadow Broker's plan, hasn't it? A friendly face in a den of rapists, a bright spot of hope to give me just before snatching it away. He put you up to this, didn't he?"  
  
"Dr. T'Soni, you need to relax," Solvitis said. "I'm going to turn to look you in the eye, okay?" He slowly pivoted, and Liara backed away to prevent him from snatching the pistol out of her hand. "I'm telling you the truth: I'm here to save you. My men will be arriving in a shuttle in the next few minutes."  
  
Liara wavered just a moment. Something about the look in his eyes was so sincere. But could she trust her own instincts at this point? Was he truly their rescuer, or was she just so desperate to believe that he had been able to con her all this time?  
  
"What was her name?" Liara asked.  
  
"Whose name?" Solvitis asked. "I don't know who..."  
  
"You know who I'm talking about! The most important woman in your life. The woman they killed, the woman who you swore to avenge with the Shadow Broker's blood!" Liara said sharply. "You told me you've spent years working up a cover, turning yourself into the scum of the galaxy to get close to the Shadow Broker and avenge her. If you truly loved her like that, loved her enough to go to all this effort... she would be your first thought when you woke. The last when you fell asleep. And when somebody points a gun to your head and asks 'what was her name,' it would be the first thing you said!"  
  
"Dr. T'Soni," Solvitis calmly said her name, holding up his taloned hands in a placating gesture. His eyes locked on something over her shoulder, and his mandibles twitched in the turian version of a smile. "They're here. The shuttle is here. Look."  
  
Liara let out a mocking laugh. "You really think I'm that foolish?"  
  
"Just go and look." Solvitis said.  
  
Liara glanced over to her fellow prisoners. "Shepard, pick up the rifle," she instructed. "Shoot him if he makes a move."  
  
Shepard moved maddeningly slowly as she walked over to the weapon and cautiously lifted it off the floor. Turning towards the window, Liara stared out into space, expecting to see nothing but the empty blackness staring back at her.  
  
There was a shuttle.  
  
It was a larger transport, a UT-85 Kermode or similar make. Large enough to carry 10-20 crew comfortably. Liara blinked as she watched it, half expecting it to vanish when her eyes reopened.  
  
But it was real.

"I'm sorry," Solvitis's voice rang out from inches behind her. "You had every right to be suspicious. I can't imagine what it must have been like, to make it through all this with your sanity intact. But it's over now. Once my men dock, they'll take care of the rest of the Broker's lackeys, and we'll get you and your friends out of here."  
  
The vision of the shuttle in front of her started to swim, and Liara reached up to wipe at the tears that had started streaming out of her eyes. "I... I..."  
  
"Hold on to the pistol, if you want," Solvitis said reassuringly. "Never know what might happen." Liara turned to see him with the assault rifle back in his hands. "I'll keep an eye on the door for any trouble. You and the ladies go meet my team. They're great guys." Giving a quick glance down, he added. "Just don't feel too offended if they stare a bit."  
  
"Solvitis, I..." Liara felt her stomach knot. This man had gone through so much, risked everything to get them out of here. And she had treated him horribly. She opened her mouth to attempt to form some sort of apology.  
  
Shaking his head, Solvitis laid a hand on her shoulder. "Go wait at the docking hatch," he softly assured her. "It's almost over."  
  
She moved to stand in front of the hatch, watching the door in anticipation. She could hardly believe it. As red lights began to flash and a klaxon began to sound, signifying a ship attaching itself to a docking arm, Liara took a deep breath.  
  
The air tasted like hope. Like freedom.  
  
She gasped as the doors to the docking arm opened, and the first of Solvitis's team stepped through and...  
  
"GRAAAAAAAH!"  
  
Liara shrieked, falling back a step and tripping over a crack in the floor. The cold metal of the deck struck her on the backside as she fell to the floor.  
  
Stepping out of the doors was a vorcha, snarling and brandishing his claws. He was followed by several more of his kind, six in all. Every one of them drooling and gnashing their terrifying teeth.  
  
And each of them with their hideous, veiny cocks already out of their pants, stiff and dripping with viscous fluids.  
  
"Aw, what's the matter, baby?" said the voice of Solvitis behind her. She turned to see him staring down at her and coldly laughing. "Expecting your rescuers to be a little more attractive, I guess?"  
  
"Isn't that just like those stuck-up asari bitches?" said a voice from the door back to the ship. "Nobody's ever pretty enough for them."   
  
Liara turned to see Bowers, moving to stand next to Solvitis and sneer down at Liara. Reaching behind his back, he gave a quick yank, and pulled back his hand to reveal the hilt of a knife, with no blade attached. Disdainfully, he tossed it on the floor next to Liara, the sound of the fake weapon clattering loudly across the shuttle bay.  
  
Walking over to Shepard and Miranda, Solvitis pushed them into the crowd of slobbering, horny vorcha. "Come on, ladies," he mockingly commanded the women. "Your knights in shining armor are waiting for their fair maidens."


	17. Filthy Fucking Traitors

Liara stared at the two chuckling mercenaries, too stunned by the sudden turn of events to even figure out what to say. Escape had seemed so close...  
  
"Didn't I tell you it would be worth it?" Solvitis asked Bowers, nudging the human next to him with his elbow. "This is always the best part, right here. That pitiful little look she gives me just when she realizes that there's no hope of escape. After so many times, it still never gets old."  
  
"You..." Liara said, as she heard the sound of the vorcha behind her, fighting amongst themselves among which holes each would get to claim first on the enslaved humans. "You were never in C-Sec, were you?"  
  
Solvitis shook his head. "Actually, that part was true. Went undercover just like I said, but you know something? Once I got a taste of life as a mercenary, I realized I'd have to be a complete moron to go back to being a C-Sec drone. Taking orders from some moron working at a desk? Making barely enough credits to get by? Having people treat me like garbage and be forced to sit there and take it? No damn way."  
  
The turian took a step toward her. At that moment, the haze of confusion momentarily lifted from Liara's mind, and she felt the cold metal in her palm.  
  
"Don't!" Liara yelled, as she swung her arm up to aim Solvitis's stolen pistol at the former owner's head. "Don't take another step!"  
  
"Better listen to her, Solly," Bowers said, but his tone was jocular and unconcerned. "She's got a gun, after all."  
  
Solvitis took another step, and Liara pulled the trigger. But nothing happened. The second pull brought nothing but a clicking sound, just like the first. Tossing aside the useless weapon, she raised a hand to direct a biotic attack at him.  
  
"Go ahead, babe, give it a try," Solvitis said, without a hint of fear in his voice. "Better do it fast, though. Because if you go for it, and it doesn't kill me, I'm going to order the Shadow Broker's newest recruits back there to rip your human friends limb from limb. Have you ever seen what a vorcha can do to someone with those teeth? Not a pretty picture."  
  
Solvitis watched her, waiting to see what she would do next. Defeated, Liara lowered her hand to her side.  
  
"That's better," the turian said. Behind Liara, the aggressive growls of arguing vorcha had ceased, replaced by the now-disgustingly familiar sounds of slurping mouths and flesh slapping against flesh. "To answer your question from earlier, her name was Kaleesa. And it was a pity for her that she didn't like my plan to tell C-Sec to go fuck themselves and live the life of a mercenary. She might have made a decent go at it, but instead she forced my hand. Couldn't have her going back to C-Sec and ruining my new career choice, after all."  
  
Reaching back to holster his rifle, Solvitis then grabbed Liara by the shoulders and turned her around. The feeling of the turian's hands on her skin filled her with panic: whatever was going to happen to her here, the Shadow Broker's rules about not touching her were apparently no longer in effect.  
  
Solvitis held her in place, forcing her to watch as the vorcha got their pleasure from the limp, unresisting humans. Miranda was lowering herself down onto the disgusting prick of one of the beasts lying on the floor, while another thrust his meat between her lips and she entertained two more of them, one in each hand. Meanwhile, the remaining two had gotten Shepard down on her hands and knees, and were taking her from each end. The one in front growled as he face-fucked the human woman, while the one behind her forced himself roughly inside Shepard's pussy.  
  
"Disgusting beasts, aren't they?" she heard Solvitis muttering next to her. "It's no wonder even their own women find them disgusting. But you're an educated asari, I'm sure you know all about the gifts that evolution gave these vermin."

She knew. Vorcha were adaptable species, and between their short lifespans and their violent culture, nature had been forced to find a way to allow them to propagate their species. She could see what appeared to be sweat gleaming off of their twisted flesh, but she knew what it actually was: a powerful aphrodisiac, one that ensured that their chosen mates wouldn't struggle for long, and be driven to unimaginable heights of arousal. And while vorcha body chemistry was quite different than humans, they had enough in common that Liara had no doubt the chemical reaction would be triggered in Shepard and Miranda as well.  
  
"Kaleesa. She was my first," Solvitis slimily spoke into her ear cavity. "I'll never forget the way she begged me to stop. She couldn't have known what she would end up triggering in me. Her cries for mercy, her struggling... I swear, my cock has never been as stiff as it was watching her bleed out." His voice turned caustic as he continued speaking. "But those assholes in the Blue Suns just had to walk in when they did, and spoil it all. Thought I'd turned traitor, and it wasn't like telling the truth was going to help my case, either. So they shot me down and left me for dead. I showed them, though. Showed them all."  
  
Sure enough, Shepard and Miranda were beginning to show signs of being affected by the vorcha body chemistry. Shepard was moaning and frantically thrusting back against the vorcha plowing her ass, while she reached a hand up to cradle the balls of the one in her mouth. A few feet away, one of the vorcha cocks in Miranda's hand started to twitch, and her lips left the prick in her mouth with a wet pop. She turned and extended her tongue, working the vorcha's cock faster, her eyes wide and eager to swallow the creature's load.  
  
With a triumphant cry, the vorcha began shooting his load, his twitching prick firing off thick ropes of foul-smelling cum. Miranda closed her eyes as the semen jetted across her face and mouth, her hand milking every last drop of the vorcha's load.  
  
As Miranda lapped at the dripping head of the vorcha's cock, Liara recalled another piece of vorcha biological trivia. It was the other part of their biology that ensured the survival of their kind: the average male vorcha had a refractory period of around 0.6 seconds. Which meant that after their orgasm, they were able to sustain an erection and resume copulating almost immediately.  
  
In theory, this would allow them to impregnate as many females as they were able to catch and expose to their pheromones. But what it meant in this moment was that these six vorcha would be able to keep fucking Shepard and Miranda, over and over again, until the beasts were too exhausted to continue.  
  
Solvitis paused in his story to let out a bemused chuckle, watching in appreciation as Shepard and Miranda moaned in chemically-induced arousal. "Look at the little whores. Honestly, babe, it'd be a crime to try and take them away from here. Rob them of all the cocks they've been begging for the last month."  
  
"They... they were faking," Liara meekly stated. "Faking so that we'd be able to..." Liara didn't finish the sentence. She struggled to keep her emotions in check. These sick bastards weren't going to see her break. She wouldn't let them.  
  
 _"I see it in your eyes, too. And what I see there tells me, beyond any doubt, that the Shadow Broker is never going to break you."_  
  
Where was Delaana through all this, Liara wondered. But part of her knew. There was no way she didn't know what was going on. She was probably back in her office, watching on a monitor and laughing at how pathetic Liara was. All that talk about how strong she was, how they'd never break her... it was all part of the plan, to give Liara that false hope.  
  
She wanted to shut her eyes, block out the images of Shepard and Miranda being shoved and rearranged into new positions, the vorcha trading spots and shoving their cocks into new holes. The two human women were now fully under the influence of the alien pheromone, and their faces were filled with wanton desire as they spread their legs for the next round.

"Aw, don't be upset," Solvitis mockingly said. "Me and Bowers, we were just playing a harmless prank. Isn't that right, buddy?"  
  
"Yeah, just a prank," Bowers said behind them. "We do it to all the guys when they first join the team. Kind of our way of welcoming them into the fold."  
  
Solvitis gripped Liara's shoulders tightly, Liara almost not feeling the pain through the numbness that had crept across her body. "See? Cheer up. It's almost like you're one of us now! We're all just one big happy family."  
  
"And you know how the saying goes?" Bowers said. Liara felt herself being spun around, Solvitis facing her towards his partner.  
  
When she saw what he was carrying, she winced. "No," she weakly protested. "Please, no."  
  
"The family that plays together," Bowers said, as he dangled the thick strap-on in the air, "stays together."  
  
"I won't..." Liara moaned, all while knowing that she would. She would do whatever they told her to, because there was no hope left. Their last chance of escape was gone. They would remain here as long as the Shadow Broker willed it.  
  
She could struggle against the bonds all she wanted, but they were never going away. It was over. All over.  
  
Appropriately, Bowers and Solvitis laughed at Liara's pointless protests. "What's the matter?" Bowers said, waving the strap-on back and forth in front of her face. "Don't you want to fuck your precious Commander Shepard? After all, the rest of the boys have all gotten their turns with her. Only right that our new member gets her chance to fuck the dirty little whore."  
  
"Do whatever you want to me, just... please don't make me do this," Liara said, the thought of forcing herself on Shepard like that making her want to puke. Yes, Shepard would probably seem like she was allowing it to happen, like she was enjoying herself. But it wouldn't be her. Not while she was under the influence of the vorcha pheromone.  
  
Almost as if he could read her thoughts, Solvitis shrugged his shoulders. "It's not like it's a big deal. I just know she'd love it." Turning to the ongoing vorcha gangbang, Solvitis barked out orders. "Hey, fellas! Have your fun with the dark-haired one for a while. Shepard, get over here!"  
  
While the six vorcha converged eagerly on the moaning Miranda, Shepard walked over with a dreamy smile on her face. "Yes, sir," she said, and the sound of it made Liara's heart ache.  
  
"You're looking like you're feeling pretty horny, baby." Solvitis put on his most charming voice as he spoke.  
  
"Uh huh," Shepard nodded, staring at Solvitis with wide, eager eyes.  
  
Solvitis leered at her. "Tell me. Tell me how horny you are."  
  
"So fucking horny," Shepard cooed. As if to demonstrate, she reached down to rub at her snatch, still dripping with the load that the last vorcha had spilled inside her. "You gonna fuck me? It's been so long since I've had that thick turian cock inside me."  
  
Over the past month, Liara had been no stranger to hearing Shepard put on a show of talking dirty for their captors. But it was so much worse to hear her now, the desire in her voice not faked in the slightest. Even if it didn't sound all that different from before, Liara wished she could block it out all the same.  
  
Glancing over at Liara and seeing her discomfort, Solvitis winked. "Oh, I don't think it's been all _that_ long, babe. But no, I'm not gonna fuck you, Shepard."  
  
"Aw," Shepard put on a pouty expression, before turning her attention to the other non-vorcha male in the room. "Bowers, you want to fuck me?" she moaned as she brazenly reached down and groped at the bulge in his pants. Her unfocused eyes locked on the strap-on in his hand and she giggled. "Oooh, is it me or Miranda this time?"  
  
"Actually, it's her," Bowers said, pointing his free hand to Liara. "But she's feeling kinda shy, Shepard. She's thinking maybe you don't want her to fuck you with this thing. Why don't you go over and convince your little asari girlfriend just how horny you are?"

Goddess, the look Shepard gave her then. It was a look she was well-acquainted with, from their nights on the Normandy SR-1. Before the Collectors attacked, Liara went up against the Shadow Broker, and everything good in Liara's life was stripped away. To see Shepard looking at her now, with that open invitation in her eyes, was an image Liara wished she could burn out of her mind.  
  
"Come on, Liara," Shepard said, swaying her hips as she sauntered over. "You don't know what you've been missing out on. When you just let go and give yourself over to the pleasure..." Shepard reached her, and reached down to trail a finger down Liara's side. "You wouldn't believe how amazing it feels."  
  
"Shepard, you need to fight it," Liara said, even as Shepard reached around to grope at her ass. "You're not yourself. It's the chemicals from those vorcha!"  
  
Liara wasn't sure what reaction her words would get, but was still surprised to see Shepard's sultry look change to one of... confusion. "The vorcha? But I..." the moment of hesitation was only for a second. But the look of desire soon returned to Shepard's face, and she continued to grope at Liara. "It doesn't matter. What does matter is that I feel wonderful. I don't want to escape anymore, Liara. I want to stay here." She removed her hands from Liara's backside and ran them gently up Liara's back, stroking her flesh lovingly. "You... me... Miranda... we could be so happy here."  
  
Shepard turned to the side, and Liara followed her gaze to watch as Miranda squealed in delight. She was bouncing up and down on the cock of a vorcha sitting on a storage crate, while the other five vorcha jockeyed around her for position, fighting for her hands and her mouth. From the sticky fluids that covered the mewling brunette, Liara imagined that all of them had fired off at least two loads on the sex-charged woman. And none of them looked like they'd be ready to quit anytime soon.  
  
"Look at her, Liara," Shepard moaned. "Doesn't she look happy? That could be you there. Cock after cock shooting inside of you, all over you. Cumming over and over again, one orgasm running into another until it feels like they're never going to stop. You've denied yourself for too long, Liara. Surrender to it. Just give in."  
  
"Shepard, please," Liara turned back to her lover, searching in Shepard's green eyes for any sign of sanity left. But the pheromone was too strong, it seemed, and all Liara saw there was unrestrained lust.  
  
"Dammit, we ain't got all night," Bowers said, and Liara felt herself being yanked away from Shepard and dragged over to the area of the hangar where Shepard had been previously raped by the vorcha. "Maybe this will get you into the spirit of things, bitch."  
  
And Liara felt herself being forced to the ground, face-first into a puddle of vorcha semen.

Bowers pressed her face hard into the floor, rubbing her head around in the disgusting muck. "Take a deep breath, bitch," Bowers said, his grip tight and unforgiving. "I'm looking forward to seeing what you're like when you've loosened up like your friends."  
  
"Hold your breath," Liara thought to herself. "Don't breathe in, whatever you do." But she couldn't hold out forever, and Bowers was showing no signs of relenting any time soon.  
  
Finally, her endurance gave out, and she drew in a ragged, gasping breath. When the smell hit her nostrils, she didn't know whether or laugh or vomit. "Goddess, how could something that smelled so disgusting be an aphrodisiac?" she thought, as the nauseatingly putrid aroma filled her lungs. She wondered if perhaps the pheromone was less effective on asari than on humans. She seemed to recall that there was no difference in the effect across species, but it's not like alien reproduction was her major field of study. Maybe she was mistaken.  
  
After several more breaths, the puddle of cum now half-smeared across her face, half festering on the floor, Bowers drug her to her feet. "How long you reckon it's going to take?" Bowers turned to Solvitis with the question.  
  
"Maybe a little longer than the humans, but it shouldn't take more than a minute," Solvitis responded. "The good doctor hasn't been... loosened up like her friends have, after all."  
  
"Well, we should help her get ready while we're waiting," Bowers said, as he moved behind Liara's back and began putting the strap-on into position around her waist.  
  
Liara idly wiped as the smeared cum on her face. She had to admit that she was feeling... different. Not sexually aroused by any means; in these circumstances, that would be insane. But her head was feeling lighter, a little floaty. The aches and pains in her body from sleeping on a hard floor for the last month were dulled just a little. If this was what being exposed to their pheromones was like for an asari, she might be tempted to blow a vorcha or two if it made her feel this... what had she just thought?  
  
She felt the tightening of the nylon straps around her hips, and she thought to herself that she should be doing something to stop this. But ultimately, she decided it didn't matter. These perverted bastards could attach as many sex toys to her as they wanted. It wasn't like they could force her to use them on anyone.  
  
Her head swimming, she stared down at the dark purple phallus now jutting out from her crotch. It looked so ridiculous, and before she knew it, she was giggling. It felt good to laugh; she'd been so miserable these past few weeks. And why was that? It was strange, but damned if she could remember.  
  
She looked back up at the people in the hangar bay. Bowers and Solvitis, watching her expectantly. Silly men. No doubt they were waiting on her to start touching herself, acting like a filthy whore for their pleasure. But she was stronger than that. She was Dr. Liara T'Soni, feared information broker and hero of the galaxy. She was strong enough to resist any chemicals they pumped into her.  
  
Her gaze turned to Miranda, kneeling on the floor while the six vorcha encircled her, jerking their cocks and showering her in jism. It was a sight that horrified her just a few minutes ago, but now she found that she couldn't stop staring. Watching Miranda grin and finger her snatch as she felt another hot spray of cum hit her bouncing, beautiful tits, Liara didn't realize at first that she had started licking her lips. Goddess, Miranda really was genetically perfect. Liara had never really found any other women besides Shepard all that arousing, but watching Miranda's curvy naked body got soaked with cum, Liara could just imagine herself walking over there and licking up every last drop of vorcha cum from that pale, enticing flesh. The thought of it made her want to reach down between her legs and start...

"Oh, Goddess, it's happening," a small voice in the back of her mind said. "Fight it, Liara. Fight it!" She thought about the Reapers, the struggle to save the galaxy... anything to take her mind off the growing warmth between her thighs. But when she tried to distract herself by thinking about her friends on the Normandy, the time they had shared together, the image warped in her mind. Garrus had stripped Tali out of her suit and was ruthlessly ramming his cock into her, while she mewled and squealed. Ashley was on her knees, hungrily lapping at Wrex's quad, before the krogan mercenary lifted her in the air and lowered her down on his thick length.  
  
Liara struggled in vain to banish the suddenly carnal image from her mind, but not before she saw herself in the fantasy, tossing off her clothing and walking into the group, their hands reaching out to touch and stroke her flesh.  
  
"Looks like she's all primed and ready," she heard Solvitis saying through the haze of arousal that had filled her mind. "Shepard, why don't you hop up on that crate and spread your legs for the lovely lady?"  
  
Liara watched as Shepard turned to obey, her eyes locked on Shepard's gorgeous ass as she went. Goddess, it had been too long since they'd fucked.  
  
Funny, she had always been reluctant to use that word before to describe it. "Making love" had always sounded so much more romantic, much less tawdry. But in the end, Liara realized, it was all the same. Whether it was Shepard and her in the captain's cabin, or Miranda with a pack of insatiable vorcha, it was all just fucking. Pure, unbridled pleasure, a true expression of the animal nature inside all of them.  
  
She smiled as she watched Shepard hop back onto a crate, spread her legs wide, and watch Liara in anticipation. As Liara moved to take a step forward, she felt a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Hold up," she heard Bowers behind her. "This is the best part." Reaching down between her legs, Bowers found a small switch and pressed it.  
  
"Oh!" Liara cried out, as she felt the device hum to life. She felt little sparks between her legs, as the high-tech sex toy interfaced with her nervous system. It felt like a whole new body part was being drawn out of her. Reaching down, she gripped the fake cock between her legs, and was able to feel the sensation of her fingers rubbing the surface of the device.  
  
By that point, she was gone. Any protests her rational mind had to lodge over what was about to happen were muted, and she focused her attention on her gorgeous human lover. And the wet slit between her legs, just begging for somebody to fill it.  
  
The mercenaries, the vorcha gangbang on Miranda... all of it faded away, until the only thing that Liara could see was the sexy woman in front of her. Placing herself between Shepard's legs, she leaned forward to kiss the red-headed human. Her lover returned the kiss passionately, and Liara didn't even register the taste of vorcha cum on her tongue. All she cared about was fucking this woman. Not making love to her, but fucking her.  
  
She placed the head of the strap-on at Shepard's entrance, and the feeling of her moist pussy lips on the cock head was indescribable. Goddess, why hadn't they bought one of these before? Behind her, she could dimly hear the two mercenaries egging her own, urging her to "fuck the little slut." But they didn't matter right now. They could have their turn later; right now Shepard was hers and hers alone.  
  
"You want this inside you?" she said to Shepard, rubbing the head of the strap-on up and down her slick pussy lips for emphasis. "You want me to fuck you with this, Shepard?"  
  
The sound of Liara talking dirty to her made Shepard let out a heated moan. "Yessssss," she hissed. "Fuck me, Liara. I want you deep inside me."

In her current state, Liara had no misgivings about fulfilling Shepard's desire. She had never done anything like this before; their bedroom activities back on the Normandy had never involved anything kinkier than a vibrator on occasion. But as she began slowly penetrating Shepard, and felt the warmth of her insides gripping the length of her artificial cock, she cursed herself for having previously been so demure. Liara felt Shepard wrapping her legs around her hips, holding her in place and pressing her to move faster. To fuck her faster.  
  
"Oh, yes," Shepard moaned, staring down at the thick cock forcing her open. Her hands reached up to fondle her own breasts. "Harder, Liara. Faster. It's so good. So fucking good."  
  
Liara's head was spinning, and she felt like she might faint from the overload of sensations shooting across her nervous system. All she cared about now was the pleasure of the moment. What would come after this didn't matter. Maybe they'd turn the tables and have Shepard fuck her next. Or maybe she'd get a chance to make Miranda beg for this wonderful toy inside her. But right now, in this moment, she was fucking the women she loved, and she couldn't be happier about it.  
  
And just as she felt her climax approach, she made a gesture of habit, one that she had done many times before in this moment. Reaching forward, she gripped Shepard's face in her hands, and smiled as her eyes went black.  
  
"Embrace eternity," she breathed.  
  
And in the span of less than a second, Liara's entire world was destroyed.  
  
* * *  
  
It had been after the fight they'd had, over the mess hall encounter with Solvitis. That was when Shepard had given in.  
  
She had been feeling the urges before that, of course. Only a few days into their captivity, she had been started feeling peculiar. The shame and disgust of what their captors were doing to them was dulling just a little bit. Replaced with... what exactly? Shepard wasn't sure.  
  
It was only natural, she told herself. The body and the mind were two separate entities in a lot of ways, and even with a rebuilt body courtesy of Cerberus, she supposed that it was just like any other in the end. Rape victims sometimes experienced unwanted arousal, and even orgasm, during the act. She wasn't any different.  
  
But she was feeling it more and more these days. That tingling down below. She ignored it as best she could. Focused on Liara, trying to be strong for her. But when the men came for them, or when she was sent to pleasure the Shadow Broker, it was becoming harder and harder to deny that she was...  
  
...Enjoying it? No, that wasn't the word. Definitely not the word. But as the days in captivity had gone by, she feared the arrival of their tormenters less and less. Had gotten used to the taste of a grimy, poorly washed cock forcing itself down her throat. Resigned herself to obediently spreading her legs to take another hard fucking.  
  
And there was no point in struggling, anyway. If there was a way for them to escape, she didn't see it at that time. So if they were stuck here for the foreseeable future, might as well just... lie back and take it.  
  
Then Liara came into their cell with the message from Solvitis, and things should have changed then. But the thought of escaping didn't bring the joy Shepard thought it would. It wasn't that she wanted to stay. But the thought of escape just brought with it the reminder of the terrible evil lurking in dark space. The army of Reapers waiting to destroy the galaxy.  
  
She knew that once they had escaped, and once she was back in the Normandy, it would be right back to watching the pain and suffering of everyone around her. Everyone looking to her to solve the galaxy's problems. To be the hero.  
  
Maybe she didn't want to be the hero anymore. Maybe she just wanted to let someone else handle the big problems. Let her stay here, be a slave. A slave didn't have to make the hard choices. Didn't have to watch as her friends died as a direct result of her decisions. A slave just had one thing to worry about: the will of the master. Please the master, and everything would be fine.

But Liara wanted to be free. And if nothing else, the thought of watching Liara being turned into a beaten, defeated slave had kept Shepard focused. So when Solvitis was about to have his cover blown, Shepard had gone to work at pleasing him, for Liara's sake.  
  
And it wasn't bad. Wasn't bad at all. Felt nice to have him inside her, his turian cock filling her in that same wonderful way that Garrus's had just before they had flown through the Omega 4 Relay and into an uncertain fate.  
  
She had lost control, though. The false show of disgust and horror she had put up over the last few days had fallen away, and she had shown her true colors to Liara. Shown her how weak she really was, how she had surrendered to the pleasures of the flesh.  
  
And Liara had punished her for it. In that moment in the cell afterward, Shepard had hated her. Hated that she was holding Shepard's indiscretion with Garrus over her head. Hated that she focused so much on petty relationship squabbles, while she sat back and watch Shepard and Miranda be violated over and over again.  
  
But most of all, she hated Liara for making her realize how far she had fallen. Made her realize that all of her "faking" to keep their captors off guard wasn't faking at all. That she had become a willing participant to this madness.  
  
"Fine, then," she had thought in the mess hall, after Liara had ignored her all morning. "If she's going to treat me like a slut, then I'll be a slut. I'll give in and let her watch as these men treat me like their personal cum bucket. See how happy that makes her."  
  
And so she had given up on the lie. Begged Bowers to stick that thick, delectable cock of his inside of her. And it had been amazing. She had thought she would feel disgusted with herself, surrendering herself to the twisted desires of her captors. But oddly enough, accepting that she was a defeated prisoner, a willing fuck toy, had felt freeing. All the pretending, the fakery was gone, with nothing left for Shepard to concern herself with but which cock was going to go inside her next, and how many times she would cum before it was all over.  
  
Liara had apologized soon after that, but it was too late for Shepard. She had already crossed a line, and she knew that there was no turning back now. The best she could manage was put on a show for Liara, pretend that she was waiting in dread for the door to their cell to open, and not eager anticipation of the fun to come.  
  
And once Liara started paying regular visits to the office of the merc leader, Shepard got even more time to play. The first time, when it was obvious to her that Liara would be gone for a while, Shepard had looked over at Miranda, and their eyes met in silent agreement. Moments later, the two of them were locked in a 69 position, Shepard hungrily lapping away at Miranda's delicious cunt. Idly, while Miranda's tongue darted against her clit, Shepard wondered when Miranda had given up like Shepard had. But that didn't really matter. All that mattered was that the two of them were horny as hell, and there were no cocks around to relieve the aching desire inside them.  
  
But that situation didn't last long. When it was obvious that Liara and Delaana's meetings would be a regular occurrence, she and Miranda started getting regular, and welcome, visits from Bowers and Solvitis during that time. As the two mercs took turns fucking the two moaning, willing women, they would laugh about the plan they had come up with together. How it would be so amazing when Liara realized that Solvitis had been suckering them the whole time, and that all of her hopes for escape were all a sham.  
  
Part of Shepard knew she should tell Liara about this, but every day she would come up with a new rationalization for why she should wait a little while longer. That it would be cruel to dash Liara's last bit of hope away from her. That it would do nothing but cast her deeper into despair. That Liara would hate her for not telling her days ago.  
  
But the real reason was obvious: if she told Liara the truth, and they found out she had, they might not come around to fuck her anymore. And the thought of that made her shiver, made her cunt ache at the thought of losing that wonderful feeling of fulfillment.

And so it had went for weeks, Shepard and Miranda enjoying the hard mercenary cocks whenever they were around, and enjoying the taste of each other when they weren't. It got to the point where Shepard actually felt disappointment at Liara's presence, knowing that it meant she'd have to pretend to be the strong commander Liara had fallen in love with, rather than the dirty cock-slave she knew she had become.  
  
Then came the day of the escape. She and Miranda had gone along with it, following along with Liara and Solvitis, even though they knew that it was all a lie. When Liara had grabbed Solvitis's pistol, though, Shepard had been unable to hold back her fear, that Liara might kill him and rob Shepard of his thick blue cock. But Solvitis had managed to distract her with the arrival of the shuttle, and when Liara had instructed Shepard to pick up the assault rifle, she had obediently returned it to Solvitis as soon as Liara had turned away.  
  
And as Bowers had forced Liara down into the puddle of vorcha cum, and Shepard had seen that look of desire come to her face afterward, she had felt overjoyed. Finally, Liara would be like her and Miranda. They could all be together, fucking and sucking and loving every minute of it.  
  
The three of them would be happy slaves. Just like they should be.  
  
* * *  
  
Liara's eyes went back to their normal color, and she immediately gasped and fell away from Shepard onto the floor. "You..." she said in disbelief. "You knew?" All the effects of the pheromone had melted away, as Liara was filled with the twin realizations of what had been done to Shepard, both by Liara in that moment, and by their captors over the course of the last month.  
  
"I'm sorry, Liara," Shepard said weakly, sorrow on her face even as she continued rubbing at herself. "I'm so sorry."  
  
Liara felt the tears coming to her eyes, and she no longer felt the need to hold them back. In that moment, she have welcomed the sound of an explosion around her neck, of her collar detonating and ending this all.  
  
They had done the worst thing they could have possibly done. They had broken Shepard, completely and utterly. The one reason for living she had left, they had twisted her mind and left her a husk of the woman she loved.  
  
It was in that moment of complete despair, that the door to the shuttle bay slid open.  
  
"What... the **fuck**... is **this**?" said a livid Delaana, her teeth bared and gritted as she surveyed the scene. "Did you assholes think you would actually get away with this? That if you pulled this off while I was sleeping, I wouldn't find out?"  
  
Liara wanted to tell her to stop. That the jig was up, and that she didn't need to put on a show anymore. But she was too heartbroken to do anything other than sob.  
  
Bowers and Solvitis laughed amongst themselves, no sign of fear in the face of their furious commander. "She's so adorable when she's angry, isn't she?" Bowers snarked.  
  
Delaana stared at the two of them in utter disbelief. "Let's see how adorable you think it is when I bash your skull in against the bulkhead, you piece of..."  
  
"Uh uh uh," Bowers said, shaking a finger in admonishment. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."  
  
"You've got exactly two seconds to tell me why I shouldn't do that," Delaana snarled. "Enjoy them, because they're also the last two seconds of your life."  
  
"I don't think so," Bowers said, letting out a sharp whistle. "Come on out, boys!"  
  
And from behind the packing crates, in the shadows of the shuttle bay, Liara saw the rest of the merc team emerge, rifles aimed at Delaana.  
  
Delaana stared around the room at the armed mercenaries, the fury on her face being replaced with a cocky smirk. "So, it's mutiny, then. Well, we'll see how the Shadow Broker reacts to this little plan of yours, Bowers."  
  
"Oh, I'm not worried too much about that," Bowers said, crossing his arms and sneering at Delaana. "I just got word today from him, actually. Seems he thinks there should be a change of leadership around here."  
  
Delaana glared at him. "You're full of shit. He didn't tell me anything."

"Plans have changed, Delaana," Bowers said, reveling in the chance to talk back to his hated commander without fear. "The facility is complete. We're diverting course and should be arriving there in two days. And when we get there... this little merc band is getting itself a new leader."  
  
"You?" Delaana asked, her tone caustic. "You've got to be fucking kidding me! You couldn't lead a pack of flies to a pile of varren shit."  
  
Bowers shrugged. "Guess the Shadow Broker saw something in me. Or at least, he saw more than he did with you. Did you forget, Delaana? That camera in your office? You're supposed to be tormenting the slaves, you dumb bitch. Not making friends with them. The Shadow Broker thinks that maybe you've forgotten that little aspect of your job."  
  
Delaana said nothing, her nostrils flaring as Bowers gleefully mocked her.  
  
"See, I know how to treat these little bitches," Bowers said, as he crouched down by Liara and grinned at her. "A fine piece of asari pussy like this... it's made for fucking, not for talking," he said. Looking up and down Liara's body, he let out an appreciative grunt. "And when we get to the facility... I'm finally going to get the chance to give her everything she's been missing out on this past month."  
  
"No," Delaana said, her voice suddenly drained of all its normal forcefulness. "The rules are..."  
  
"The rules are gonna change, bitch," Bowers said, getting back to his feet. "The second we step inside the facility, your precious little friend here is going to be fair game. And you better believe that me and the boys are gonna make up for lost time on this little piece of blue meat."  
  
"You..." Delaana stammered, her face contorting as if she was in pain. "You think I'm going to sit back and watch you... that I'm going to take orders from you?"  
  
Bowers raised a finger. "Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you. See, the Shadow Broker's going to be relocating to the facility once we arrive. But just in case somebody comes looking for him again, he's going to send this ship back out as a decoy. And guess who he picked to head up such a prestigious assignment?" Not waiting for Delaana to respond, Bowers gestured behind his back, to the group of vorcha that had temporarily paused in their circle-jerking at the arrival of Delaana. "Congratulations on your new position, Delaana! And just look at the elite team you'll be in command of! You know the Shadow Broker; he only chooses the best of the best! And from what I hear, they're great conversationalists!"  
  
The whole team of mercs began to laugh, while the vorcha looked at each other in confusion.  
  
"This is..." Delaana said. "This is a fucking joke."  
  
"I know, isn't it?" Bowers said, lowering himself again to Liara and raising a hand toward her face. "So how about you give us a smile, you tasty little..."  
  
" **Don't you fucking touch her, you son of a bitch!** "  
  
All the laughter in the room stopped. Even Bowers was taken aback by the fire in Delaana's voice. Striding forward, Delaana reached down and grabbed Liara by the hand. "She's had enough of you fuckers for one night," she snapped, as she pulled Liara up to her feet.  
  
"What do you think you're..." Bowers started to say, rising back up and taking a menacing step toward Delaana.  
  
"Don't you say another goddamned word," Delaana whirled to stand toe-to-toe with him. "Maybe you'll be in charge when we reach the facility, but we're not fucking there yet. And until then, I run this goddamned ship. And she's coming with me. If you've got a problem with that, then you can fucking take a shot at me if you want. Comes to that, though, I'm pretty sure I can take out at least two of you fucking amateurs before I go down." Leaning in to Bowers, her face an inch from his, she added. "And I'm coming for your head first."

The cocky smile on Bowers's face wavered, just a little. "Fine, sure," he quickly said, struggling to maintain his composure in the face of the furious asari. "Might as well let you enjoy your last moments in command. Take her away if you want." Smirking, he waved a hand back at Shepard and Miranda. "We've got enough here to keep us entertained for now, anyway."  
  
Liara numbly followed Delaana as the asari mercenary drug her out of the room. Taking a glance back into the shuttle bay, she saw the assembled mercs converge on Shepard and Miranda just before the door slammed shut.


	18. Dream Come True

Liara barely remembered their hurried flight back to Delaana's office. Everything around her, this ship that had been her involuntary home for the last month, seemed so unreal. She could hardly feel her own body; the cold deck under her bare feet seemed somewhere far away. Was it the lingering effects of the vorcha pheromone? Or something else, something in her mind that had reacted to the terrible truth she had just been exposed to? Liara didn't know, and found herself not caring much either.  
  
Right now, nothing seemed to matter. She followed along with Delaana because she had no other choice. It was something she was going to have to get used to: being controlled by others. Things were going to be changing very soon, and Liara would have to adapt.   
  
When she and her friends ended up at the facility, she would be used. Just like Shepard and Miranda had been used. As a toy, as an amusement for a pack of heartless rapists. As a warm hole to spill their seed into. They would abuse her body, but Liara knew one thing: that they would not be able to touch her mind.  
  
Because it was gone. Gone away to some dark place, where no one would be able to retrieve it. Part of herself, a part that was small and getting smaller every moment, observed that she was very likely going insane, or already there. But just like everything else right now, Liara found that she didn't care much about that either.  
  
They made it back to the office, and Delaana closed and locked the door. "That fucking..." she was fuming to herself, fists clenched as she stalked around the office. "He thinks he can do this to us?" Looking down at Liara's torso, she gritted her teeth and grabbed one of the nylon straps tightened around Liara's waist. Liara blinked at the sensation of the fake cock being disconnected from her body, as Delaana ripped it away.  
  
The asari mercenary looked up at the camera in the corner of the room. "You sick bastard!" she let out a furious cry as she hurled the sex toy at the surveillance device. The strength of her throw, plus a little boost of biotic power, reduced both the strap-on and the camera to little more than the component atoms.  
  
"Gotta be some way to... dammit!" Liara watched dispassionately as Delaana impotently raged. After a few seconds, she turned her attention to Liara. "We're going to figure this out somehow, pet. I'm not going to let them touch you, I swear. We're going to..." She gripped Liara by the shoulders. "Pet, are you... oh, no. Goddess, no." She waved a hand in front of Liara's face, but Liara kept staring straight ahead. "Oh, no no no no... please, say something."  
  
Liara recognized that she was being asked to do something, but it was funny. It was like some connection between her body and mind had been severed. She was still inside her body, but she couldn't make herself speak. Couldn't make her own body move. Not that she much cared to, anyway. Whenever she tried to do anything, it always ended in pain. For herself and the people she loved. If she just... stopped, went inside herself, it would all be better.  
  
"No," Delaana pleaded, tears begin to trickle down her cheeks. "They haven't broken you, Liara. They haven't. I know you're still in there somewhere, please. You're stronger than them, stronger than all of them." Delaana's hands moved from her shoulders, up to caress her neck. "I won't let them win."  
  
She leaned forward, and Liara closed her eyes as she felt Delaana's lips press against her. She could taste the salt of Delaana's tears as the asari mercenary kissed her desperately, perhaps hoping that it would bring her out of whatever mental state she was currently in.  
  
"Please, Liara," she heard Delaana whispering, pulling away for just a moment. "Please come back to me."  
  
Liara opened her eyes, and what she saw there caught her breath in her throat.

It was Shepard standing there in front of her. Not the defeated, broken woman from the shuttle bay, but the vibrant, powerful commander of the Normandy. Dressed in her battle-scarred armor, and with a look on her face that made plain her intentions for the evening.  
  
It brought a smile to Liara's face to see Shepard like this again. Wrapping her arms around Shepard's waist, she passionately kissed her beloved commander back. Her tongue met Shepard's, while her hands reached down to work on removing Shepard's armor. Her fingers fumbled with the complicated fasteners, and she laughed to herself. How many times had they done this before, and Liara could never manage to figure it out?  
  
Their kiss broke for a moment, and Shepard moaned, "Oh, Liara..." There was something different about her voice. Something that reminded Liara of something far off and unpleasant.  
  
But she put it out of her mind. She was here with her lover, in the captain's cabin, after a hard and stressful battle. One of many to come, Liara was sure. But the geth and the Reapers could be put aside for the moment. Right now she was with the woman she loved, and nothing else mattered.  
  
Shepard eventually showed mercy, pulling Liara's hands away and ending her feeble attempts to remove Shepard's N7 armor. As Liara watched her expertly strip off her battle wear, something wavered in front of her eyes. For a moment, she could swear that Shepard wasn't wearing her normal set of Alliance-issued armor, but the faded, battle-scarred garb of a mercenary. But after a few seconds, Liara's eyes refocused, and she saw Shepard's N7 armor hit the floor of the Normandy's deck. Her uniform underneath soon followed, leaving Shepard standing there in only her underwear.  
  
Liara let her eyes drift slowly up Shepard's pleasing form. Those firm, well-toned muscles, so defined they seemed to be almost sculpted from marble. A few battle scars across her blue... no, not blue... across her pale pink skin. They didn't make her less attractive, though; on the contrary, it just accentuated her image as a warrior. A soldier who would fight until her last breath, and would never allowed herself to be defeated.  
  
The perfect woman. The woman that Liara loved more than life itself. Liara could almost cry, she was so happy in this moment.   
  
Everything was alright. She was with Shepard, and everything was alright.  
  
As Shepard began reaching for her dark sports bra, Liara stepped forward and caught her wrist. "Let me," she said with a smile, putting a sultry tone in her voice. Liara had never really thought of herself as "sexy" before she had met Shepard. Sure, she had gotten looks here and there from aliens during her travels and studies, but she had always figured it was the usual curiosity that other races had about asari and their mating habits. But the way Shepard would look at her when they were in private, eyes almost worshipful as she took in Liara's naked body, made her feel like she was the most beautiful asari who ever lived. It was a feeling she had missed so much after Shepard had died, and...  
  
 _"I need you to get the crew on the evac shuttles. I'll take care of Joker."_  
  
Died? What was she thinking? Shepard hadn't died. There had been that time when the wreckage of Sovereign had crashed into the Citadel, that one brief moment of terror that the woman she loved was gone. But then Shepard had emerged from the rubble, that irresistible smile on her face, and Liara had thanked the Goddess for Her mercy.  
  
Liara didn't know what was going on in her head lately. Her own memories seemed to be foggy in her mind. To be honest, she didn't even remember them arriving back to the Normandy, or anything beyond the last few minutes.  
  
But she dismissed it. Right now, all that mattered was pleasing and being pleased by the woman in front of her. She gripped the fabric of Shepard's sports bra, fingers playing along the hem of the garment and brushing against the scaly... smooth flesh underneath. With a light tug, she freed one of Shepard's full, luscious breasts from the captivity of the fabric. Leaning down, she took Shepard's stiff nipple between her lips, sucking on the hard nub while lavishing it with her tongue.

"Oh, Liara," she heard Shepard moaning. "You don't know how long I've wanted this."  
  
She smiled around Shepard's breast. She knew the feeling. So many times, even in the midst of a heated battle, she would look over at Shepard. See her ducking behind cover, with sweat sticking her red hair to her freckled skin, and make Liara wish she could just call a "time out" and take Shepard right there, in the middle of the battlefield. Those shuttle flights back to the Normandy, the two of them looking at each other with the anticipation seeming to electrify the air around them, were so deliciously maddening.   
  
But the waiting was over. Shepard was here, and the two of them would never be parted again.  
  
Liara pursed her lips as she pulled away from Shepard's nipple, the departure of her mouth making a soft popping sound. Yanking Shepard's other breast free from her bra, Liara duplicated her oral attentions on the other nipple. She could feel Shepard's hand brushing the back of her neck, playing with Liara's head crests as she lapped at the tip of Shepard's heaving breast.  
  
"Goddess, it's good..." Shepard said. The sound of it almost made Liara giggle: was she doing so well that Shepard was changing religions? Well, at this point it would take Athame Herself coming down from the heavens to stop what had been started. Slowly, seductively, she brushed her hand down Shepard's rippling torso, her fingertips drifting over the damp fabric of Shepard's panties and rubbing at the crease of flesh underneath.   
  
"Tell me what to do," Liara murmured, wanting to hear the sweet sound of her lover's voice asking, begging for her touch. Straightening up her back, she leaned in and pressed her lips to Shepard's neck, loving the sound of her human lover's eager moans as Liara's fingers boldly pressed into the front panel of her sodden briefs.  
  
"Touch me," Shepard breathed. "Touch my azure, please."  
  
Liara gave Shepard a confused smile. She couldn't help but wonder where Shepard had heard that term before. As far as Liara knew, it was only used in some parts of Illium. And Shepard had never been to...  
  
 _"I know you're looking for the Shadow Broker. Cerberus gave me data on where to find him. Interested?"_  
  
Her hand paused, halfway through the process of working its way inside Shepard's panties. She had been having these strange thoughts, ever since she and Shepard had returned from... where had the mission been? She was starting to get worried; perhaps she had taken a blow to the head, suffered a concussion of some sort. It would explain why her memory of the past few days was so foggy. Maybe she should see Dr. Chakwas about this. It wasn't like her to be this...  
  
 _"It's pointless to challenge me, asari. I know your every secret, while you fumble in the dark."_  
  
"Liara? What's wrong, pet?" she heard Shepard say. And again, that strange sound in her voice. "Pet." Someone had called her that before. Someone from...   
  
She didn't know why, but Liara suddenly felt fear grip her insides. Her vision was getting hazy, Shepard's face seeming to ripple and fade in front of her eyes. Something in the back of her mind was struggling to be let out, but she knew that if she did, all of this would be ruined. She tried to block it out, focus her mind on Shepard.  
  
And that was it. That was the answer. She didn't know what had happened, to put her mind into this state. But she knew one thing that would help her focus, sort her thoughts better than anything else.  
  
Pulling her hand out of Shepard's panties, she raised it up to Shepard's eye level. Gently cupping Shepard's cheek, she brought her other hand up to clasp Shepard's face as well.  
  
"Liara, what are you..." Shepard's eyes went wide with sudden panic. "Liara, no! Don't!" she cried out.  
  
"It's okay, Shepard," Liara said, closing her eyes and establishing the meld. Her eyes reopened, jet black, as she said, "Embrace et..."  
  
Pain.  
  
She had felt physical pain many times before. Emotional pain as well. Pain that she thought she would never survive, pain that made her think death would be preferable.  
  
But not like this. Goddess, not even close to this.

This was something utterly unlike those previous, paltry agonies. This was pain in its purest form. Her entire nervous system felt like it was being ripped out of her body. Every inch of her skin seemed to be on fire.   
  
It could have been a few seconds she stood there, or it could have been ten thousand years. Liara gritted her teeth so hard she thought they might shatter, felt twin trickles of blood spurt out of her nose. She knew she should let go, but couldn't make herself unclench her fingers.  
  
Finally, she felt firm hands grip her wrists. As soon as her palms were yanked away, she collapsed to the floor, escaping from the agony into the dark depths of unconsciousness.  
  
* * *  
  
When she woke up again, she was huddled on the floor. Blinking, she looked around, seeing her surroundings as if for the first time.   
  
Delaana's office. That's where she was. The confusion she had felt, the jumbled state of her mind had been cleared. The shock of melding with Delaana must have woken her out of the psychotic break she had experienced after entering Shepard's mind and seeing...  
  
Remembering that brought it all back in a flood, and the despair threatened to overwhelm her again. Shepard and Miranda broken, the Shadow Broker allowing his men to make Liara their next victim. In a way, Liara almost wished she could escape back into that blissful insanity she had briefly slipped into. Now she had her mind back again, only to allow the Shadow Broker the pleasure of watching it be broken.  
  
She stood up, her body aching from the agony of melding with an Ardat-Yakshi. Turning slowly, she saw Delaana sitting at her desk, having redressed herself while Liara was out cold.  
  
"Just in time," Delaana said to her, staring down at a vidscreen. "They've taken Shepard and Miranda off somewhere else. The shuttle bay is unguarded. If we make a break for it, we should be able to make it to the shuttle before the Broker knows what we're doing."  
  
Liara stared at Delaana in confusion, and Delaana jumped to her feet. "We're going to get you out of here, pet," Delaana said. Opening a nearby cabinet, she retrieved two pistols, extending one to Liara. "Don't know how far we'll make it, but I'm not letting those assholes make you their plaything. I think we would both rather die before that happens."  
  
She stared blankly at the pistol in Delaana's hand. "You... you want to help us escape?"  
  
"I want to help _you_ escape," Delaana stressed. "The only chance we're going to get is now, while the rest of them are distracted with the other two. So let's not waste any more time."  
  
Liara shook her head. "No. I'm not leaving without them."  
  
"Listen to me, pet," Delaana patiently explained, placing the offered pistol on her desk and holstering her own. "You're in no shape for a long firefight, and I'm not going to be able to take down all those fuckers by myself. I know you care about them, but trust me: your friends are long gone now. We've got to look out for ourselves here."  
  
But Liara stood her ground. "We leave with them... or we don't leave at all."  
  
Delaana gripped her by the shoulder. "We don't have time for this. If we don't do try for an escape now, then you're going to be stuck with the Broker for the rest of your life. They're going to start feeding you that shit, and it's going to make you a mindless slave just like your human friends. So let's..."  
  
"What did you say?" Liara asked. "Feeding me what?"  
  
Sighing, Delaana averted her eyes from Liara. "I would have thought you'd have figured it out by now. It's in the food, Liara. The Shadow Broker has been testing it in the food."  
  
"Testing...?" Liara started to ask, but her mind was already working through the past month. Making the connections.  
  
Always the same seating arrangement. Shepard and Miranda together, Liara by herself.  
  
The different meals. Shepard and Miranda's food taking on a greenish tint as the days went by. Just like the greenish liquid that Roth had used to work the varren into a mating frenzy.  
  
Always at least one guard watching them. Making sure they ate every bite of their food.  
  
The medical inspections. Hawkins inspecting Shepard and Miranda carefully, while barely glancing at Liara.

"It's a drug," Delaana said, confirming Liara's conclusion. "He's been testing it on your friends. Wanted to make sure it was absolutely perfect before he used it on you. Used it to make you an obedient, sex-charged slave just like your friends have become. The whole part about making you watch Shepard be broken was just a bonus for him."  
  
Liara stared at Delaana, her face twisting in anger. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"  
  
"Because what fucking good would knowing that do you?" Delaana snapped. "What would Shepard and Miranda have done if they'd known? Not eat? The Broker would have just found some other way to give it to them." She glanced back at the vidscreen on her desk impatiently. "What does it matter now? Just come on, already!"  
  
"But if it's a drug," Liara said, "if they stop taking it, then..."  
  
"Then what, Liara?" Delaana asked, her voice frantic and desperate. "They go back to who they used to be? You're a fool if you think that. After all they've been through, the hell they've lived in for the last month, you think they'll be able to just walk away from that?" She shook Liara by the shoulder. "The Shepard you loved is gone, Liara. Get that through your head. Even if you take her off that drug, she'll never be the same again. But there's still hope for you. For us. Come with me, and I'll make sure they don't ever put a collar on you again."  
  
The collar. She pressed a hand to the electronic device around her neck. "Even if I said yes, we can't leave."  
  
Delaana looked down at the floor. "Dammit, Liara." When she looked back up, her eyes were filled with shame. "The collar isn't a problem."  
  
"But if we leave the ship, it's going to..."  
  
"Explode? Liara, do you really think the Shadow Broker would put live explosives around the neck of his prized captive?" Delaana shook her head. "The collar's a tracking device. Nothing more."  
  
Liara shook her head in disbelief. "But... you said if I disobeyed, that you would blow off Shepard's..."  
  
"It was a bluff," Delaana snapped. "The Shadow Broker knew that you would never endanger your friends. And if you disobeyed, he told me he had other ways to keep you in line. The collars were all just a con."  
  
Angrily, Liara shoved Delaana's hand off her shoulder. "You knew all this time! We could have fought them together. All four of us, we could have beaten him!"  
  
"I'm sorry, pet. I just..."  
  
"Stop calling me that!" Liara cried out. "I'm not your goddamned pet! Everything that's happened, all of this... you could have stopped it! All this time, while we were busy talking about poetry and politics..."  
  
A look of grief came to Delaana's face. "I didn't want to lose you, okay? Even if we fought the Broker and won, what would have happened then? You and your friends would have gone back to your ship, and I would have to go back on the run again. I would have never seen you again, and I couldn't stand the thought of it." She reached a hand toward Liara. "Please. I know it was wrong. But just come with me, and I swear that I'll make it up to..."  
  
"Don't touch me," Liara slapped Delaana's hand away. "I'm going back to my cell. My place is with Shepard, no matter what happens. Even if it means they'll drug me, torture me... I'd rather let them fuck me a thousand times than let a pathetic monster like you touch me again."  
  
Liara turned her back to Delaana. "Liara, please!" she heard the mercenary call out behind her, but Liara ignored it.  
  
When she arrived back at their cell, the door was open. Liara stepped inside, part of her dreading having to see Shepard again, knowing that the woman she loved had been drugged into obedience.  
  
But Shepard wasn't there. Neither was Miranda. The cell was empty.  
  
Walking over to the wall, Liara sat down and waited. She kept waiting for a long time, staring at the open door to the cell.  
  
She didn't know how much time had passed. At some point, she realized with a start that she had dozed off. But as soon as she awoke, she went back to staring at the door.  
  
It was a very long time before she started to suspect that Shepard and Miranda weren't coming back.


	19. AUTHOR'S NOTE: Two paths lie before you

So, I had two endings in mind for this fic, and I couldn't decide which one to use.  So I decided to let my readers have both.

A SLAVE is the original ending.  It's the darker of the two endings, and the more perverse.  Which, depending on your mindset, could be a good thing or bad thing.

A PET is another ending.  A bit less pessimistic, a little more catharsis for the characters, but definitely not "happy" in the conventional sense.  Read this ending if you want to see those rapist fuckers get what's coming to them in the worst way.

The chapters of the different endings are labeled appropriately.  I'd advise choosing which one you're more interested in, and reading that one first, as each ending spoils aspects of the other endings.


	20. A SLAVE: The Fields of Eternity

She fell asleep again at some point. When she awoke, the dream she'd had still lingered in her mind. A pleasant dream, of her and Shepard together. Their collars removed, and their enemies defeated.  
  
It hurt all the more, knowing that it was a dream that would never come true.  
  
The door to their cell was still open. And still no sign of her fellow captives. There was a peculiar quiet in the air. No sounds of boots outside the room, none of the guards anywhere. Liara considered getting up and leaving the room, exploring the ship to see if she could find where everyone had gone.  
  
But just as the notion entered her mind, the vidscreen on the wall flickered and glowed. The display was filled with the grinning face of Bowers.  
  
"Testing, testing? Are you receiving?" Bowers asked, his voice filled with that familiar, sadistic glee. "Hey, there, babe. Not too long to go now. Word from the Broker is that we'll be reaching the facility in about 12 hours." Staring into the camera, Bowers let out a low, lewd groan. "Oh, are you ready for it, baby? You ready for me and my men to put the meat to ya? It's gonna be so much fun. Won't be long now until you're begging for it, just like your slut friends."  
  
Liara stared at the screen dispassionately. As Bowers shifted around in the camera's view, Liara could make out someone behind him. She wondered if it was Shepard, but from where Bowers was standing, Liara could only make out the very edges of the person's form.  
  
"But you know something, babe? I gotta make a confession to you," Bowers said, acting like some sort of demented showman as he spread his hands towards the camera in a feigned motion of guilt. "See, even when I was a kid, I was always the type who wanted to open his Christmas presents early. And I've been so anxious to get a piece of some hot asari tail that... well, I cheated."  
  
Bowers stepped aside from the camera's view, and the person behind him was revealed.  
  
They had stripped her naked, and she knelt shivering on the floor of the empty room, her hands secured behind her back. From the look of the bruises on her face, the swelling around her left eye that left it completely shut, she had not been treated kindly over the past few hours. The rest of her nude body was similarly abused, dark welts spotting her skin and gashes trickling purple blood.  
  
Delaana stared at the floor, slightly rocking back and forth on her knees, all of her bravado and power drained away from her. Stepping confidently up to his once feared commander, Bowers stared down at her with naked contempt.  
  
"We found this traitorous bitch heading towards your cell, with some weapons and a suit of body armor in a bag," Bowers spoke into the camera. "From all the grenades and spare heat sinks she had, I think she was hoping that you and her were going to go to war against the Broker." He barked out an incredulous laugh. "Don't know what kind of universe she thought she was living in, that you two would actually be able to take all the rest of us out, but I think you can see how that worked out for her."  
  
The camera zoomed in on Delaana's face, and Liara saw that her lips were moving. Liara moved in close to the speaker, trying to hear the words coming out of Delaana's mouth.  
  
"...I sit and watch the meadows sway, like lovers dancing through the night. Two petals caught upon the wind, drift far away and out of sight. The sun..."  
  
It was "The Fields of Eternity." Delaana spoke the words to the poem quietly and rapidly, like a mantra. Her one eye not hidden behind swollen flesh was pointed towards the floor, but wasn't focused on any spot in particular. Whatever had happened to her over the past few hours, it had reduced the once confident asari warrior into a dazed, almost catatonic wreck.  
  
As the camera's view widened back out, Liara could see that Bowers was in the company of the rest of the mercenary band. The men stood on the edges of the room, staring down at the defeated Delaana with scornful gazes.  
  
"So, like I said, I got impatient for some sweet asari pussy. And so did the rest of the boys," Bowers raised his voice to the rest of the room. "Didn't we, fellas?"  
  
The rest of the room let out raucous laughs, while Delaana shuddered in the midst of them.

"Oh, she fought us at first," Bowers said into the camera. "But I knew just how to calm her down." Crouching next to Delaana, he put his head close to hers. "What did I say to you, Delaana? Do you remember? Or did all of us big strong men fuck those big brains of yours right out of your head?"  
  
Delaana didn't seem to notice that Bowers was even there. She remained staring at the ground, her lips moving faster as she feverishly recited the words of her favorite poem.  
  
"I told her," Bowers turned his attention back to the camera, "that we were either going to do what we wanted to her... or that we'd take it out on her precious Liara instead. After that, the bitch got oh-so-obedient." He made an exaggerated, stupid expression and opened his eyes wide. "D'aw, ain't love grand?"  
  
Standing up straight again, Bowers let out an exaggerated sigh. "But I think we've had our fun with the traitorous bitch. And while the Broker and I considered sticking a collar on her and letting her join the rest of you slave bitches... well, I hate to be shallow, but look at this face." He patted the back of his hand against Delaana's bruised and beaten cheek, and the asari flinched in pain. "Shit, I wouldn't fuck her with the Illusive Man's dick. And if she ain't good for fucking..."  
  
Reaching down to his hip, Bowers pulled out a pistol, pivoting it down at an angle towards Delaana's head. "Then why keep her around, you know?"  
  
Even with death staring her in the face, Delaana didn't flinch. "...nights I still dream of that place. Where the green stretches ever onward, forward into eternity's joy." she finished the poem and fell silent.  
  
"I'll give you a minute, if you have any last words for your lovebird other than a bunch of babbling," Bowers said, his hand steady as he aimed the gun down at Delaana.  
  
Delaana blinked, and for a moment, she seemed to return to sanity. She looked up into the camera, stared for just a moment... and then smiled. Even with her face in its battered state, Liara couldn't help but notice how beautiful it made her look. There wasn't a trace of fear in her eyes; they were completely peaceful.  
  
"It's okay, Liara," she whispered, as a tear fell from her one good eye. "It's okay. I... I saw..."  
  
The shot rang out, and a spray of purple fluids splashed against the floor, joined soon after by Delaana's body as she recoiled from the shot and fell sideways. The camera followed her fall down to the ground, and captured her face as she hit the floor.  
  
Even in death, the peaceful smile remained.  
  
Bowers stood over Delaana's corpse, an expression of sick glee on his face. Looking at the camera, he shrugged. "Oops. Guess my finger slipped. Sorry about that." Turning to the men in the room, he made a gesture. "Clean up this mess, men. I've got preparations to go over with the Broker for our arrival at the facility."  
  
As Liara watched the vidscreen, watched the mercenaries grab Delaana's limp body by the arms and drag her out of the room, she observed with a detached curiosity how little it had all affected her. Strange. Seeing the last chance she had for escape die... the last sane, friendly face she had left in her life get reduced to a bloody mess... it should have made her angry. Or leave her despondent, realizing that once again, she was responsible for the suffering and death of someone else. Or make her feel some sort of emotion over what had just happened.  
  
But she felt nothing. Absolutely nothing at all.


	21. A SLAVE: Choose Your Fate

Sometime later, Liara wasn't sure when, Glyph arrived at the open door. It gave the command to follow to the mess hall, and Liara numbly obeyed.  
  
She wondered if Shepard and Miranda would be waiting for her there, dining on the green slop that had turned them into mindless sex slaves. But no one was in the mess hall when she arrived. Her plate of food was already at the table, and Liara sat down to quietly, numbly eat. The food tasted like cardboard in her mouth, but she finished it all. Glyph led her through the ship again, but they took a different path. Liara followed as they traversed the halls, at one point looking down to notice a long, smeared streak of dark purple on the floor under her feet.  
  
And still... she felt nothing.

After a little while, Liara realized where their path was taking her. It was a route she, Shepard, and Miranda had taken weeks before. As they moved closer to what Liara was sure would be the final destination, she saw the mercs leaning against the walls, watching her as she was marched to her fate. Their eyes filled with lustful intent, no doubt already imagining what they'd do to her once they reached this mysterious facility.  
  
Liara didn't care. Shepard was gone, she didn't know where. Miranda as well. "Test subjects," Delaana had told her. That's all they were to the Shadow Broker, nothing but guinea pigs. Had the Shadow Broker already disposed of them? Put bullets in their temples just as they had done to Delaana?  
  
And again there was that numbness. That empty feeling where emotions once existed. Liara wondered if any of her mind would remain when the Broker started giving her his well-tested drug. Or would it all be replaced by the overwhelming urge to fuck, the irresistible desires that Liara had felt when she had melded with Shepard's mind?  
  
It wasn't like she wanted it to happen. But with the way she felt now, she would have almost preferred becoming an insatiable sex slave, rather than carry around this emptiness for centuries to come.  
  
Finally, they reached the door. Liara still remembered the first time she had stepped through this door. Having just discovered that Feron was alive, she had felt so confident. So sure that victory was just within their grasp.  
  
How foolish she had been back then. And so many had paid for that foolishness. Feron, Shepard, Miranda, Delaana... whatever happened to her when she stepped through this door, Liara knew one thing, from the bottom of her heart.  
  
She deserved it.  
  
The door opened, and Liara stepped inside the Shadow Broker's office. The room inside was dark, the only light coming from the stars outside the windows. She noticed that the stars were not moving. They must have reached their destination already.  
  
As she heard the door close behind her, a light snapped on above her, spotlighting her naked form in the midst of the blackness. "Greetings, Dr. T'Soni," said the deep, unmistakable voice of the Shadow Broker. It hadn't been since that day they had fought, and Shepard had placed Liara's life above her own freedom, that Liara had heard his voice in person. Back then, that deep, rumbling voice had unnerved her. Reminded her of the menacing tones of Sovereign.   
  
"But Shepard defeated Sovereign," she had thought, "and compared to something so massive, what sort of threat could even a yahg present to someone like Shepard?"  
  
Foolish. So foolish.  
  
"It is interesting to see you now, so docile and subdued," the Broker said. "Such a different individual from the headstrong asari who invaded my home and believed herself superior enough to defeat me. I am certain that you have seen the error of your ways."  
  
Liara said nothing. She knew that even if she spoke, it wouldn't matter. The Shadow Broker had defeated her, and she would allow him to revel in his triumph.  
  
"But as much as I have enjoyed toying with you and your companions, I believe it is time to bring this game to its end. And I felt it was appropriate for it to finish here, in the room where you made the mistake of challenging me."  
  
Two additional lights blazed to life, revealing a pair of small pedestals to either side of Liara. On top of each of them glowed a thick forcefield, the swirling red energy orbs obscuring whatever lied underneath.  
  
"In front of you are two options," the Shadow Broker explained. "Two fates, if you will. In a moment, you will make a decision. And it will be the most important decision in your miserable existence. Not only for yourself, but for those you care about as well."  
  
These words brought Liara out of her stupor, just for a moment. "Where are they?" she meekly asked. "Shepard and Miranda, what have you done with them?"  
  
As if answering her question, one more light was triggered, this one over the shadowy form of the Broker.

The beast sat in the same chair he had been in when they had first entered his office. Only now, he had shed his giant suit, and sat completely naked, with no desk in the way of Liara seeing his full hideous, bloated form. He had affected a slouching posture, in order to thrust his hips past the edge of the chair and put his fully erect cock on display.  
  
And on either side of his slimy, pulsating length were Shepard and Miranda. Both of them moaned wantonly as they ran their tongues up and down the massive veiny organ in front of them. Each of them used one hand to lovingly stroke at the Broker's cock, while the other worked busily between their legs, frantically pressing and stroking on their swollen clits.  
  
Their tracking collars had been removed, replaced with simple leather bands around their necks. Thin chains ran from rings on the collars, up into the Shadow Broker's clenched fist.  
  
Leashes. Leashes for the Shadow Broker's new, well-trained pets.  
  
The Shadow Broker didn't say anything for a while, simply sitting back and letting his obedient slaves worship his cock with their hands and tongues. Liara wondered which he found more satisfying: his manhood getting a tongue bath by two human sex toys, or forcing Liara to watch it happen. Considering what Liara had been an audience to for the last month, she suspected it might be the latter.  
  
"Your friends are... quite well, as you can see," the Shadow Broker intoned, reaching down with his free hand to pat Shepard's head. "And putting their talents to use most splendidly."  
  
"Thank you, Master," Shepard pulled away from the Broker's cock long enough to say, before returning to her duties with renewed vigor. Her fingers, slick with her own arousal, began pumping in and out of her pussy as she continued lapping at the massive yahg cock in front of her.  
  
The Broker spoke to Liara again, his casual tone striking a surreal contrast to the carnal activities taking place between his legs. "If you have not already reasoned this out, allow me to illuminate you: I have been administering a drug to your companions over the past month. A very potent concoction, designed to overwhelm the subject's mind with sexual desire. I've been working on it for some time, although it was not until you provided me with such pleasing test subjects that I was able to refine it to its current form."  
  
Reaching to his side, the Broker retrieved a small remote control device. He hit a button with one of his massive fingers, and the forcefield on one of the pedestals dissipated. The deactivation revealed a small glass vial, filled with a sickly-green fluid.  
  
"What my men have been adding to your companions' meals was a heavily-diluted version of the final formula. Designed to slowly warp the minds of your loved ones, and make you watch as it happened," the Shadow Broker explained. "The bottle in front of you, however, is the concentrated drug itself. If you choose to ingest this bottle, it will do to you in minutes what it took thirty days to do to your friends. You will become just like Commander Shepard and Miss Lawson: a slave to your body's desires. Once that is done, you and your friends will join me in the facility as my slaves. To service me, and those I command you to service, for as long as I desire."  
  
Liara said nothing. Staring at the bottle in front of her, she remembered what she had felt when she'd melded with Shepard's mind. Remembered how she had struggled and fought against the overwhelming urges that began filling her body with each passing day, only to surrender to the chemically-induced pleasure. That experience had warped Shepard's mind so much, even over the course of a month. If the same thing happened to Liara in a mere fraction of that time, she doubted she would retain what little of her sanity was left.  
  
"But as much as I would enjoy having you serve as my slave for the rest of my life, I do have the capacity to be merciful," the Shadow Broker intoned. "So I have decided to give you... another option."  
  
He hit another button on the remote, and the other forcefield dimmed and vanished.  
  
Revealing a Carnifex pistol.

"If you would prefer, you have the option of escaping from me in the only fashion you have remaining. And giving your friends the same release as well," the Broker said. "If you choose the pistol, you may use it in whatever manner you wish. Shoot yourself... or shoot your friends. Or do both, if you prefer. You may even choose to shoot at me, if you wish to go out fighting. Be aware, however, that the heatsink inside that pistol only has the capacity for three shots. And I'm sure you would agree that wasting those three shots on me would have little effect."  
  
He was right. Even completely unprotected by armor, the yahg's thick skin would barely suffer a scratch from the weapon.  
  
"You should also keep in mind that if you choose the pistol, and any of the three of you are still alive when you have finished shooting, the remaining survivors will be taken to the facility. So be sure to aim carefully. You will not get another chance."  
  
Liara looked back and forth between her two options. Her two possible fates. She looked up at Shepard and Miranda, completely uninterested in the drama in front of them. Their sole focus was the cock of their master, and Liara had little doubt that she could pick up the pistol and put a bullet in each of their heads before they would even have time to react.  
  
But could she do that? Did she really have it in her to shoot Shepard? To shoot herself? She pondered the decision for some time, blocking out the sounds of Shepard and Miranda eagerly slurping on the Shadow Broker's cock. Nodding her head, she made her choice.  
  
The Shadow Broker watched her every movement as she stepped toward her final decision. No doubt he was eager to watch it happen, watch Liara show him how thoroughly he had beaten her. Reaching down, she wrapped her hands around the object, and slowly raised it from the pedestal.  
  
"I'm sorry," she said out loud. To Shepard. To Feron. To her friends on the Normandy. To everyone in the galaxy who would suffer due to her. "It's all my fault."  
  
Taking her chosen object with her, she walked over to Shepard. The foul smell of the Shadow Broker's bodily fluids made her pause for a moment, before continuing forward. Crouching down next to Shepard, Liara placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. The touch drew Shepard's attention away from the Broker's cock, and she looked at Shepard with lazy eyes.  
  
"Hey, Liara," Shepard said with a smile. When she saw the look on Liara's face, she cocked her head in confusion. "Something wrong?"  
  
"No," Liara said, smiling back at Shepard. In her mind, she went through the memories once more. The rescue at Therum. The night before Ilos. Every moment of love they had ever shared, all the happiness. She thought it might make what she was about to do harder but, surprisingly, it only made it seem easier.   
  
"Nothing's wrong, Shepard," Liara said, stroking Shepard's cheek with one hand, while raising up her other in preparation. She'd have to do it quick, before she lost her nerve. "We're going to be together, Shepard. That's all that matters."  
  
She closed her eyes, and made her choice.


	22. A SLAVE: The Facility

"I don't like this. This is a really bad idea."  
  
Garrus Vakarian turned from the CIC and stared down at the ex-Cerberus operative with an annoyed expression. "You've made that quite clear several times, Mr. Taylor. And your concerns have been duly noted in the ship's log."  
  
Jacob rubbed at the back of his neck. "It's just... this whole thing stinks of a gigantic trap. I know how badly you want to find out what happened to them, but..."  
  
"No... you don't," Garrus said, stepping down from the CIC platform. "I've been fighting alongside Shepard and T'Soni since you were back fetching drinks for the Illusive Man. I owe Shepard more than you could possibly imagine. So if you want to sit back and cower on the Normandy while we go in and check this out, be my guest. But I'm going."  
  
"You think I don't care? Shepard and Miranda meant a lot to me too!" Jacob snapped back at the turian. "But what's the point of putting ourselves at risk, if all we're going to find are a bunch of lifeless corpses?"

"At least we would know!" Garrus exclaimed. "And if we found Shepard's body, maybe the Alliance could replicate the Lazarus Project. We could bring her back again!"  
  
"In case you've forgotten, the Lazarus Project head could be dead right alongside her!" Jacob yelled, the pain in his voice barely hidden underneath his anger.  
  
Tali watched helplessly as the two men argued. She wanted to step in, but doubted she'd be able to cool them down. Tensions had been high on the Normandy SR-2 ever since the message had arrived two days ago.  
  
It was a grainy picture, taken on some outdated omnitool, of the interior of a dilapidated prefab building. The floor of the room was covered in rubble and discarded machinery, the building obviously abandoned for some time. And in the center of the picture were three bodies, with thick cloths draped over their still forms. The body in the front of the picture was slightly uncovered, revealing the unmistakable head fringe of an asari.  
  
And just below the crests was a dark splotch on the asari's temple. Even at the low resolution of the picture, it was unmistakably a bullet wound.  
  
With the picture had been a simple message: "WITH RESPECT, THE SHADOW BROKER WISHES TO RETURN THE BODIES OF YOUR COMRADES," along with the coordinates to an abandoned settlement in the Terminus Systems.  
  
They had been hunting for Shepard and her team for more than a month now, and this message had been the closest they'd ever come to even a hint of where the Shadow Broker had taken them. Everyone knew it was a bad idea to come here, but the desperation that had set in among the crew was obvious. Even if it was just to find out that the courageous human they had come to trust with their lives... even if it turned out that she was gone, they needed to know.  
  
All of them had taken Shepard's abduction hard, of course. But Garrus especially. When they had come back from the supply depot to find the Shadow Broker's ship gone, and Shepard and her team with it, he had demanded that they search the entire system, scan every last piece of dust to figure out where they could have gone. After almost a full day of searching, it had eventually taken Tali, Joker, and Kelly all together to eventually talk Garrus down, and convince him that they needed to give up for now. They had headed back to the Citadel to meet with the Council, Garrus pacing frantically up and down the deck the whole way.  
  
"Enough of this!" said a commanding female voice behind Tali, breaking up the heated argument between Garrus and Jacob. Tali turned to see Ashley Williams, suited up in her full combat armor, weapons holstered and ready. "We're going down there, and I don't want to hear another damn word about it. Garrus is right. Even if all we're going to find are bodies... they deserve more than to just be left on some backwater planet to rot."  
  
When the Normandy had returned to the Citadel, Garrus and the rest of the crew begging for assistance in finding Shepard, they had found the Council to be their usual, helpful selves. "As much of a hero as Commander Shepard once was, she and the rest of you were last seen working with Cerberus," Tevos had said. "And the Council cannot justify devoting resources to aiding members of such an organization, even if they claim to have defected."  
  
Thankfully, Anderson hadn't been satisfied with that answer. Once the meeting with the Council was over, he had gotten in touch with Hackett, letting him know about the circumstances and asking if there was anything the Alliance could do to assist. The next day, Ashley had shown up at the Normandy's docking station, telling Garrus that the Alliance, while not officially involving themselves in the matter in any way, had assigned Ashley to a "semi-permanent, classified assignment," and that she would assist however she could to locate Shepard.  
  
It was a dangerous situation. No official Alliance or Council backing, no one to call on if things got hairy. But they all knew the risks, and not a single one of them wavered in their determination to find Shepard and her comrades, and bring them home safe.

And so they had set out. Garrus taking unofficial command of the Normandy, and he and Ashley taking point in tracking down every Shadow Broker associate they could yank out of their holes. As days turned into weeks, things had gotten more and more desperate. Garrus and Ashley began to escalate their tactics, from intimidation and threats to what humans had come to call "enhanced interrogation techniques." It had disturbed Tali a little, to see the lengths that her friends would go to in order to locate Shepard.   
  
"But the Reapers are still out there," Tali reasoned to herself. "And if we don't get Shepard back... well, it's worth dirtying our hands a little if it means the difference between life and death for the entire galaxy."  
  
But in the end, none of it had worked. Even under threat of pain and death, none of the Shadow Broker's associates were able to give them anything even close to a solid lead on their boss's whereabouts. After more than a month, they were in the same place they started: staring into empty space, wondering where their Commander had gone.  
  
So this message was all they had. They had piloted the Normandy to the coordinates provided, and arrived to find no sign of any enemies - or much of anyone else - in the area. It was, to use the old Earth colloquialism, quiet. Too quiet.  
  
But even though Tali agreed with Jacob that the whole thing was most likely a trap, she had prepared her own weapons, and was ready to follow Ash and Garrus down to the surface of the planet. If the Shadow Broker's men were there, waiting to ambush them, perhaps they could capture one of them alive, see if he could lead them back to the Shadow Broker's ship.  
  
"Look, just... the second you smell anything off, you get the hell back to the evac point, okay?" Jacob said to the assembled SR-1 veterans. "I'm going to have the shuttle pilot come back to the ship once he drops you off, and we'll be ready to head down there after you as soon as possible if things go south."  
  
Ashley nodded, while fitting a visor onto her head. "I'll be sending a live feed back to the Normandy," she said, activating the head-mounted camera. "We'll be in constant contact the whole time."  
  
"Alright. Good luck out there." Jacob said. "I'll be in the cockpit with Joker, monitoring the mission."  
  
Ashley, Garrus, and Tali stepped into the shuttle. The tension was unbearable, all of them painfully aware of the sad truth: either they were about to step into an ambush, or they were about to find the dead bodies of some of their closest friends.  
  
* * *  
  
"Jeff, are you feeling alright?"  
  
Joker could have fired off any number of sarcastic comebacks to that one, but he hadn't felt much like jokes over the past month. "I'll make it, EDI. It's just... I had to go through this once already. Shepard dying because of me, that is. Twice might be a little much for me to handle."  
  
"Commander Shepard's abduction was not your fault, Jeff. You had no way of knowing she was giving orders under duress."  
  
"But that's it, EDI: I _should_ have known," Joker said, his voice melancholy. "She's been my commanding officer for years now. I should have known just from her voice that she was in trouble. I never would have left if..."  
  
"Joker," said Jacob as he entered the cockpit. "I need you to stay focused, here. The shuttle is landing at the coordinates as we speak."  
  
"Right, got it," Joker said, pressing buttons on his control panel and bringing up a hovering display of the live feed from Ashley's visor-cam.  
  
"You gonna be okay?" Jacob asked the pilot. "Things might heat up before we even know it."  
  
Joker nodded. "I'm fine. Just... what are we gonna do, Jacob? If the Commander really is dead... the Reapers are still coming. Could be here before we know it. And the best hope for the galaxy might be under a sheet down there."  
  
"We'll do the best we can," Jacob said, although there wasn't much optimism in his voice. "Hopefully it'll be enough."  
  
* * *  
  
"Taking point," Ashley said, as she led Garrus and Tali into the abandoned colony. It was getting close to dusk as they landed; the only sound was the whistling of the wind through the empty buildings and deserted streets, and their boots crunching in the gravel.

"Bringing up the rear," Garrus said, sweeping his assault rifle around the area. "No sign of hostiles."  
  
They moved forward cautiously into the deserted collection of prefab buildings. Even though Ashley was sure that all of them were fighting the desire to dash directly toward the building indicated in the Shadow Broker's message.   
  
She knew she was, at least; she still remembered her encounter with Shepard on Horizon, the cold way Ashley had cut ties with her. She had never felt right about it, even though she told herself that she was justified in her anger at Shepard. But when she had found out about Shepard's abduction from Admiral Hackett, it had made that pang of guilt even harder to bear.   
  
The thought of Horizon being the last time she got to see Shepard had eaten away at her for the past month. As they got closer to the indicated coordinates, she almost prayed there was an ambush waiting for them. At least then, there was hope that Shepard was still alive.  
  
"This is it," she announced, as they reached the door to a small, one-story building. "Everybody ready?"  
  
* * *  
  
Jacob and Joker watched from the cockpit, as Ashley's camera feed showed Tali using her omnitool to send a power surge through the door's electronics, triggering it to open. The three of them entered, Ashley moving straight ahead, while Tali and Garrus covered the sides.  
  
"No sign of movement," they heard Ashley say, as she swept the light from her assault rifle across the room, the dim glow of the setting sun outside the only other illumination. Jacob heard Joker hiss in a nervous breath as Ash's flashlight caught a familiar sight. The three bodies from the message, hidden under the cloths just as they had been pictured.  
  
"Careful," Jacob said, EDI broadcasting his words down to the team on the surface. "No guarantee those are actually even bodies. Could be traps."  
  
"Roger," Ashley said. "Moving forward."  
  
* * *  
  
Ashley stepped cautiously over to the first cloth-covered heap. She dreaded what was to come, but they needed to do this. Needed to see if their friends had been murdered.  
  
While still holding her assault rifle with one hand, Ash used the other to grab the cloth, and slowly draw it away. When she saw what was underneath, she let out her breath.  
  
"It's a man. It's not one of them."  
  
* * *  
  
"Get out of there, Williams," Jacob demanded over the comm line. "It's not Shepard's team. We've been duped."  
  
"Hold on," Ashley said, drawing the cloth further away from the body. Whoever it was, the man was completely unrecognizable. Somebody had fired multiple shots into his head, leaving a bloody mess where his face had been. Pulling the cloth down to the corpse's waist, Ashley spotted a gleam of light. "There's something in his hand. Looks like... it's an ID tag."  
  
"An ID tag, or some sort of trigger for a trap," Jacob cautioned her. But Ashley was apparently determined to check it out, prying open the corpse's fingers to retrieve the gleaming object.  
  
"Name says... Hawkins. William Hawkins," Ashley read from the metal tag. "Don't know who..."  
  
Joker heard a gasp from behind him, and turned in his pilot's chair to see Jacob lean in close to stare at the video feed. "Williams, show me his arm. The right arm, put a light on it," Jacob said  
  
Ashley did as ordered, showing a large, distinctive tattoo snaking around his bicep. It was just as Jacob had feared.  
  
"I know that man," Jacob said softly, then repeated it louder for the team to hear. "I know him. Or knew him. He was a deep-cover Cerberus operative. We had him working on infiltrating the Shadow Broker's network of mercenaries. Hawkins was the cover ID we set him up with."  
  
"Guess that didn't work out for him," Joker said, trying not to relax too much, but feeling a bit relieved that it wasn't one of his friends under that cloth.  
  
"I knew this was all a set-up," Jacob said again. "Williams, you need to go."  
  
The camera view tilted back and forth, Ashley shaking her head. "I want to check out the other two."  
  
"Dammit, Williams!" Jacob said, powerless to stop her as she reached for the second cloth. "You're putting your life and the lives of your team on the line, here!"

"This is our only chance to find some sort of clue of where Shepard is, Taylor," Ashley snapped. "I'm not going to leave until we've checked everything out."  
  
When Ashley pulled away the second cloth, Jacob cursed. It was worse than he realized.  
  
* * *  
  
"I know him, too," Jacob said over Ash's radio, as she stared down at the male drell corpse. "His name is Feron. He used to work for the Shadow Broker, but the Illusive Man turned him. It was because of him and Liara that we were able to recover Shepard's body."  
  
"Looks like the Shadow Broker's cleaning house," Ash remarked. "We should take these bodies back to the Normandy. Maybe we can find something useful that will lead us back to the Broker."  
  
Jacob didn't answer at first, but Ash finally heard his voice over her comms. "Fine, I'll get a team ready to join you down there and assist with the bodies. Withdraw to the evac point and wait for our arrival."  
  
"Wait a minute," Ash said, stepping over to the last corpse, the asari with her head slightly poking out from under her makeshift burial shroud. "Let's check the last body first, see if you recognize her."  
  
Taking hold of the cloth, Ashley pulled it down, revealing the dead asari underneath. Even in the dim light, Ashley knew one thing without even shining her flashlight on the body's face: it wasn't Liara.  
  
Illuminating the woman's head, Ashley frowned. "Well, at least she went out happy," she observed, the light on her rifle shining off the dead asari's smiling face. "You know who she is, Jacob?"  
  
"I'll field that one, actually," said a voice from the darkness. "Her name was Delaana, and she was a total bitch."  
  
Ashley and the team all swung their lights toward the direction of the voice. Standing at the far side of the room, his hands empty and extended, was a human male. He wore the armor of a mercenary, along with an absolutely ridiculous looking green mohawk.  
  
"Identify yourself!" Ashley yelled out. "Don't take one step or we open fire, understand?"  
  
The stranger grinned. "I come in peace. See?" He waved his empty hands around. "No need for guns. In fact, why don't you all just go ahead and drop those weapons you've got there, hmm? Would make it a lot easier for us to have a friendly conversation."  
  
Ash scoffed. "Yeah, don't think that's gonna happen. Put your hands behind her head and get down on your knees."  
  
"Honey, I'm not here to start a fight," the stranger said, showing no fear in the face of three armed and experienced soldiers. "You came here looking for Commander Shepard, right? Just drop your guns, and I'll take you to her."  
  
Ashley kept her weapon trained on the stranger, not liking the way he was leering at her. "How about we keep our guns, and you take us to Commander Shepard before we let you join your dead friends on the floor?"  
  
"Not the way it works, I'm afraid," the stranger said, letting out a heavy sigh and staring up at the ceiling. "Women, why are they always so much trouble?" When he looked back down at them, the stranger's previously friendly voice became tinged with menace. "Let me put it another way: put down your weapons, right now, or your friends are going to suffer the consequences."  
  
"You want me to put a round in his kneecap, Williams? Might make him a little more cooperative," Garrus asked, his weapon's light pivoting down to the stranger's legs.  
  
Ash shook her head. "Not just yet," she said to Garrus, before turning back to the strangely calm human. "And what exactly are you going to do to my friends, considering we've got our guns trained right between your eyes, and you're completely unarmed?"  
  
He smirked at that. "Oh, I'm sorry. I suppose I didn't make myself clear. See, I didn't mean your friends down here." He jerked a thumb upward. "I mean your friends up there."  
  
* * *  
  
"I've had enough of this," Jacob said, turning away from the screen. "Samara, Thane, make your way to the shuttle bay. We're going down there to..."  
  
Jacob's next words were cut off by the sudden drone of an emergency siren going off throughout the Normandy. Red alarm lights began flashing across the main deck, and the crewmen on the CIC deck began looking around in confusion.  
  
"EDI, what the hell is going on?" Jacob yelled over the sound of the alarms.

"Alert!" EDI's virtual form flared to life next to Joker. "A signal from outside the ship has tapped into the Normandy's computer banks! They have gained complete control of our systems and are preventing me from terminating their connection!"  
  
"That's not possible!" Joker exclaimed. "How could they have hacked you, EDI?"  
  
"They didn't hack me, Jeff. Whoever it is, they have all of the Normandy's access codes. I am unable to block them out."  
  
As Jacob and Joker looked around in shock, a green gas began streaming out of a nearby vent. "EDI, what..." Jacob started coughing, placing his hand over his mouth to try and block out the gas.   
  
"I'm afraid they have activated the Normandy's counter-insurgency protocols," EDI said, her synthetic voice sounding almost sorrowful. "A fast-acting anesthetic gas is currently being deployed across all decks."  
  
Joker reached over to a side cabinet, trying to find the emergency rebreather through the haze of green smoke that was filling the cockpit. Behind him, he could hear crew members falling unconscious to the floor. Jacob gripped the back of Joker's chair, trying desperately to stay standing, before finally tumbling down to the deck.  
  
"EDI, get..." Joker said between coughs. "Get the Normandy... out of..."  
  
"I am sorry, Jeff," EDI said, as Joker slumped down into his chair, the rebreather falling from his limp fingers to the floor. "There is nothing I can do."  
  
* * *  
  
In her comm unit, Ashley heard it all happen. She spat out a curse as Joker's last words before falling unconscious were broadcasted directly into her ear. A few seconds more, and the signal went quiet.  
  
"Now, that thing I was saying about dropping your weapons?" the stranger cockily said. "Or would you rather I have my men trigger the Normandy's self-destruct sequence, blow all of your friends out of the sky and leave you stranded here?"  
  
"Maybe I should just shoot you instead!" Ash exclaimed, aiming her rifle between the stranger's eyes. "Can't give the order when your brains are all over the damn walls, you bastard!"  
  
The stranger clucked his tongue as he shook his head. "You think I came here alone? My men are tapped into the Normandy's systems at this moment. They're expecting me to report in two minutes, and if I don't, they blow up the ship. But go ahead and shoot me if that's the way you want to play it. I'm sure you three can stick out your thumbs and hitch a ride with the next passing spaceship."  
  
Ash gritted her teeth, before letting out a frustrated groan and dropping her rifle to the ground. "Dammit!" she snarled. "Do what he says."  
  
"Ash, he's just gonna blow it up anyway," Garrus exhorted her.  
  
"Garrus," Ashley turned to glare at him. "Drop your weapon."  
  
Garrus was still hesitant, but then Tali discarded her shotgun. Walking over to Garrus, she laid a hand on his shoulder. "Please, Garrus," she said to him. "We have to do what he says."  
  
"Yes, you have to do what I say," the stranger repeated mockingly. "You do want me to take you to Shepard, don't you?" Leaning back slightly, he crossed his arms and studied Garrus. "She's talked so much about you... Garrus, I assume is the name? She misses you terribly, you know. I'd hate to have to disappoint her, tell her that I left you to starve to death on some backwater planet. So just drop the weapon, and you'll get to see your precious Commander Shepard again. I promise."  
  
Staring down at the ground, Garrus angrily tossed aside his rifle. His shoulders slumped in defeat, as he glared at the confident stranger with murder in his eyes.  
  
"Good, thanks for being so cooperative," said the stranger. He pressed a hand to his ear. "It's clear. Take them down."  
  
"What?" Ash cried out. She heard a whistling sound behind her, followed by a sharp pain in her neck. Reaching up to the source of the pain, she felt the tuft of a tranquilizer dart in her neck.  
  
She turned just in time to see Garrus and Tali being struck by similar darts, before she felt herself falling to the ground, her vision swimming with black.

 

* * *  
  
For the next few hours, Ashley drifted in and out of consciousness. She vaguely remembered being lifted up onto a hovering gurney. Men in battle armor pulling her along toward the ramp leading into a large shuttle. "This must be what those colonists the Collectors abducted felt like," she thought blearily, before drifting back into a deep sleep.  
  
The next thing she remembered was falling. She blearily opened her eyes to find herself in a small room. It took her a second to recognize it as an giant elevator car. Several armed men stood around her as they all plunged rapidly downward. Toward where, Ashley could only guess. But she had little doubt that it was going to be unpleasant.  
  
They still had hope, Ashley reasoned to herself as she drifted back into unconsciousness. Chances are, they were taking her to where Shepard and Liara were being held captive. Shepard may not have been able to escape from the Shadow Broker on her own, but with all of them working together, there had to be a way out of this.  
  
There just had to be.  
  
Finally, she woke again. Although she briefly wondered if she was still in some sort of dream when she saw her current surroundings.  
  
It looked like the lobby of some posh hotel. Red carpeting covered the entire floor, several marble statues lined the walls, and a decorative waterfall ran nearby. Pleasant classical music was being piped in through a sound system high up on the ceiling, where crystal chandeliers glittered brightly. Gaining her bearings, Ash realized she had been deposited onto a red velvet couch. Her armor had been stripped off her, leaving her in just her Alliance uniform, and all of her weapons had been removed. But otherwise, she appeared to be unharmed, and not restrained in any way.  
  
"Good, you're awake," said a voice out of her vision. When Ashley turned, what she saw astonished her almost as much as the posh setting.  
  
She was a beautiful blonde, a radiant smile on her face as she approached Ashley on dark stiletto heels. She seemed like the type who would blend right in with surroundings like these, except for one major problem: the woman was wearing something out of one of the sleaziest bars in Omega. A black and red leather corset cinched in her waist, but left her overinflated breast implants bare and bouncing in the breeze as she walked. A matching leather collar around her neck, long black stockings attached to her corset with garter belts, and a pair of black silk panties were the only other articles of clothing on the woman's curvy form. Two male guards followed closely behind her, but she seemed to show no modesty in their presence, as she walked up to Ashley and offered her a hand.  
  
"Where the hell am I?" Ashley said, as she ignored the woman's hand and rose shakily to her feet on her own.  
  
The woman beamed as she gestured around at their surroundings. "Welcome to the Ark Facility! We're so pleased to have you join us, Ashley!"  
  
When she heard the accent, something clicked inside Ash's head. She blinked away the remnants of her tranquilized state and stared at the woman. "Miranda Lawson?" she asked incredulously. The face certainly looked the same as the one in the dossier the Alliance had on the former Cerberus operative. The accent matched up, for certain. But the hair and _definitely_ the outfit didn't seem to jibe with her profile in the slightest.  
  
But the woman nodded eagerly at the sound of the name. "Yes, that's me! Jacob must have told you about me, I suppose. He's such a sweet guy. And the cock on that man..." Miranda rolled her eyes to the ceiling and moaned. "Oh, my God, I can't wait to have it inside me again!"  
  
The mention of Jacob spurred something in Ash's still bleary mind. "Where's my team? What happened to the Normandy?" she took a menacing step forward, and the guards behind Miranda readied their rifles.  
  
"Oh, don't worry," Miranda said, giving Ashley a light pat on the cheek. "They'll all be coming here soon enough. But you get to be the first one to take the tour. Oh, I'm so excited to show you the facility! Follow me, please."

Miranda turned around to head towards one of the doorways, Ash getting a good view of her black lace thong disappearing into the crack of her otherwise bare ass as she strutted her way across the carpet. After some menacing looks from the two guards, Ashley reluctantly followed the barely-dressed woman through one of the doors, still feeling a little woozy from the drugs they'd knocked her out with.  
  
"The Ark Facility is an absolute marvel of modern technology," Miranda said, as they stepped into a long hallway. In contrast to the posh atmosphere of the main "lobby," the passageway was stark, with bare white metal walls and simple sliding doors. Built for function and not for style, obviously.  
  
"The Shadow Broker has been working on developing this safe haven for several years now. But it was only within the past month that he finally achieved completion of this state-of-the-art facility." Miranda sounded like a bubbly corporate executive, and Ash could have almost pictured her in that role if not for the sight of her naked breasts bobbing back and forth as she walked.  
  
Stopping for a moment, Miranda turned to Ashley and cocked her hip. "You see, when the Shadow Broker first came into contact with the race known as the Collectors, he began to suspect that the legends regarding the Reapers were not legends after all. But were indeed a very real threat that could lead to the destruction of all advanced life in the galaxy. So he began working on constructing a facility, for himself and those who joined him to stay safe and unharmed while the Reapers conducted their harvesting. And so the Ark Facility was born.  
  
Miranda gestured up at the ceiling as she continued her spiel. "This facility is buried fifteen miles underground, and is only accessible through one highly secure, and well-hidden, elevator shaft. Even if the Reapers were to know this facility was here, they would have to reduce this entire planet to dust in order to destroy it."  
  
"So the Shadow Broker is going to cower down here like a rat?" Ashley questioned Miranda. "Did he ever once consider using those resources to help fight the Reapers, instead of just worrying about his own sorry hide?"  
  
Miranda let out a giggle. "Oh, don't worry about that. The Shadow Broker is still looking into ways of defeating the Reapers. In fact, I've been told that one of his teams found something recently in the Martian Archives that might prove quite useful. Just consider this facility his 'back-up plan,' if you will. A chance for him and several chosen individuals to ensure their survival should the war with the Reapers not go smoothly."  
  
"And let me guess how somebody gets 'chosen' for a spot in the Shadow Broker's little fallout shelter. I'll start at a billon credits and start working up, tell me when I get close," Ashley scornfully muttered.  
  
This elicited a nod from Miranda. "It is true, the Shadow Broker is asking for quite a substantial fee for someone to be considered as one of the Ark Facility's privileged residents. But half of all fees for entry into the facility are being diverted into researching potential ways to combat the Reapers."  
  
"And what if they fail?" Ashley asked. "The poor get slaughtered by the trillions, while the rich get to live out Armageddon down here?" Shaking her head, she laughed in disgust. "Just great. This 'Ark' of the Broker's is going to leave the galaxy repopulated by a bunch of rich idiots who probably couldn't tie their own shoelaces without a butler to do it for them."  
  
Miranda beamed, and beckoned Ashley to follow her. "That's where you're wrong, though, Ashley. The Shadow Broker isn't just allowing wealthy donors into his facility. He is also opening up the offer to carefully selected individuals of lesser financial means." She let out a light chuckle and leaned in conspiratorially to Ash. "Of course, the Shadow Broker might have forgotten to mention to them what role they'll be playing as members of the Ark Facility."  
  
"Really?" Ash said, already getting sick of being in this place. "And what role is that, if you don't mind me asking?"  
  
"Why, as sex slaves, of course!" Miranda said excitedly. "Just like me, and just like you and your friends from the Normandy are going to become! Isn't it wonderful?"

Ashley stopped dead in her tracks. "Hold on just a damn second!" she exclaimed. "I don't know what the hell the Shadow Broker did to you to turn you into an airheaded tramp, but if he thinks he's going to do that to me, he is seriously mistaken. I'll be damned before I'll bow and scrape to a worthless piece of shit and his perverted billionaire friends!"  
  
"Oh, Ashley, don't be so mean," Miranda said, putting a pouty expression on her face. "I was like you when the Shadow Broker first got his hands on me. But I think once you've been here a while, you'll start seeing things in a different light."  
  
"Bullshit. Screw your little tour, and screw the Shadow Broker. He can try if he wants, but there's no damn way he's going to make me into a giggling sex toy like you."  
  
Miranda regarded the furious Ashley with amusement. "Why don't you come with me just a little further, Ashley? I've got something to show you that I think might change your mind just a little."  
  
"Whatever," Ashley muttered. Staring over her shoulder at the armed guards, she added. "Like I got a damn choice, anyway." Mentally, she resolved herself to keep cool. If Miranda was alive, Shepard and Liara probably were as well. And if Ashley could get in the same room as them, maybe they could figure out a way to overpower the guards and fight their way out.   
  
As much as it aggravated her, she had to play along for now, and wait until they took her to Shepard. If nothing else, she needed some more time to let her body completely purge the tranquilizing drug they had used on her.   
  
Besides, even if she'd had all her faculties, Ashley would have to get seriously lucky to subdue the two guards currently at her back without a weapon to use. And who knows how many more guards the Shadow Broker had patrolling this place? There was no way she would survive on her own. She needed somebody to watch her back. She needed to find Shepard.  
  
As they resumed their walk and turned the corner, Ashley spotted the mohawked man from the surface of the planet. "Hey, Bowers!" Miranda exclaimed as she saw him, rushing excitedly to his side. "Did everything go alright with the Normandy?"  
  
"Absolutely perfect, babe," Bowers said, reaching down to give Miranda's ass a firm slap and eliciting a giggle from her. "Those Normandy access codes you gave us worked just like a dream. Fuckers never knew what hit 'em."  
  
"I'm glad I could help," Miranda brightly said, pressing her barely-clothed body against Bowers, as she stared at him adoringly. "So, is everybody here?"  
  
"Most of them," Bowers said, staring boldly down at Miranda's exposed tits as he talked. "We left a few of them behind. The old fogies and the cripple. Imagine they'll have a lot of fun explaining to the Council how the rest of their crew just up and vanished."  
  
He laughed, and Miranda laughed along with him. "I can't wait to have them all join us!" Miranda cooed, before batting her eyes at the mercenary. "You gonna... thank me for those codes later?"  
  
"Oh, you bet," Bowers said, grabbing onto one of Miranda's breasts and kneading it with his rough fingers. Miranda moaned, and Ashley tried not to retch in disgust as she realized that Miranda was grinding her crotch against Bowers's leg. "Me and all the guys, we're all gonna give you a big thank-you present."  
  
"Great, I can't wait!" Miranda said, reluctantly stepping away from Bowers and waving goodbye to him as he went down the hallway in the opposite direction. Once he was gone, Miranda turned to Ash with a smile. "That's Bowers. He's such a sweetie! You'll be getting to know him soon enough." Leaning towards Ash, she whispered. "Little tip between us girls: he likes you to suck on one of his balls while you jerk him off. I did that one on him a few days ago... he came allllll over me!" Miranda beamed with pride at her achievement in pleasing one of her masters.  
  
Ash grimaced, but said nothing. Inside though, she made a silent promise: first man in this place that expected her to suck on something, she was going to bite it off for them. They could punish her however they want; she wasn't going to let these bastards turn her into one of their playthings.

"Gotta find Shepard," she thought to herself as they continued their tour of the facility. As Miranda was babbling on about their food stores and animal cloning labs, and how they could sustain the estimated population down here for over 850 years, Ash was picturing herself and her old commander taking down these two guards like they were practice dummies, and shoving their rifles into this bimbo's face until she had no choice but to tell them how to get out of here. Shepard and Williams together again, just like old times.  
  
"And here's the last stop on the tour," Miranda finally said, facing a small, unassuming door at the end of a narrow hallway. "Right through here is slave processing, where you'll be prepared for your new life as a servant of the Shadow Broker. It might be a bit painful at first, but once it's all over..." Miranda let out a giddy squeak, bouncing on the balls of her feet and letting her enhanced breasts jiggle as she clapped her hands in excitement. "Oh, you're gonna have so much fun!"  
  
Ashley kept her gaze steady on Miranda, trying to keep her intentions of escape off her face. "So, the rest of them are through there? Shepard and Liara, they're still alive?"  
  
Miranda tittered, and the sound of it made Ashley want to punch her in the jaw. "You'll see. Just walk through that door, and you'll get the answers to all your questions."  
  
Ashley glared back at the armed guards. She didn't like the sound of "slave processing," but she could still feel a trace of the fatigue from whatever they had doped her with on the way here. Chances are, even if she was lucky enough to disarm one of them in her current state, the other guard would have already taken aim and shot her down.  
  
"Shepard, I don't know how they managed to keep you under lock and key for more than a month, but I hope they haven't taken the fight completely out of you," Ashley thought to herself. "Because we're getting the hell out of this perverse fantasy land of the Shadow Broker's... or we're gonna die trying."  
  
The door to "slave processing" opened, and Ashley saw a small, darkened room on the other side. She tentatively took a step forward, but then glanced over her shoulder. "You're not coming?" she asked Miranda.  
  
"No, I've got other matters to attend to," Miranda explained, as she bounced her way over to spin around and stand between the two armed guards. While Ashley watched in disgust, Miranda reached behind her and shoved a hand down both the fronts of both of the guards' pants. "These boys have done such a great job, and it's been _way_ too long since I've have a nice, hard cock in my mouth." Her eyes didn't leave Ashley's as she freed the guards' manhoods from their pants, and lovingly stroked them to full erection. "Oh, don't be jealous! You'll get your chance soon enough," Miranda gently reassured her, as she lowered herself down into a crouch and leaned over to begin hungrily lapping at the head of the prick on her right.  
  
"G... get moving," one of the guards said, raising his rifle menacingly – or as menacingly as he could manage while his cock was out of his pants and being played like a harmonica by a blond bimbo. Ashley reassessed her chances, wondering if she could take these guys down while they were... otherwise engaged. But they were about ten feet away from her, and even with the distraction of a handjob, Ash was sure that at least one of them would be able to get off a shot before she closed the distance.   
  
Taking a deep breath, Ashley turned back to the door into slave processing. "Here goes nothing," she thought, before walking boldly through the door and into the small room.


	23. A SLAVE: And Her Slavemasters

The door slid shot behind her, and lights blazed to life above her, so bright she almost had to squint from the glare. The room was probably only about twelve by twelve feet, stark white like the hallway outside. In addition to the door she had walked through, there was another door to her left. It was locked, and as Ashley stepped cautiously towards the center of the room, the door behind her glowed red as well.  
  
In front of her was a large video monitor. As soon as Ashley reached the middle of the room, the display flared to life.

"Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams," said the creature on the other end of the display. It was a massive beast, bigger than a krogan even, with eight sinister eyes and a set of massive horns. The beast was sitting at a desk, like some grotesque parody of a businessman, with its hands clasped in front of it. "What a pleasure to finally meet you in person."  
  
"The Shadow Broker, I presume," Ashley said, trying her best to remain confident even as she began to understand how Shepard and Liara could have ended up being defeated, staring down this hulking monstrosity. "You know, I had imagined you would be ugly, but I never would have dreamed you'd look like something out of the Thessia wildlife preserve."  
  
"Very amusing," the beast said, no hint of emotion in his voice. "Almost as amusing as your feeble attempts to locate me over the past month."  
  
Ashley arched an eyebrow. "Really? We must have been getting close, if you went to all this trouble to take us captive."  
  
"Close? No. But you and the turian have proven to be a troublesome hindrance to my operations. Your fumbling attempts to locate your friends led to the cripplings and deaths of several of my associates. Some of whom took considerable efforts to recruit and install in positions of influence. This is why I could no longer tolerate your interference in my affairs. I have brought you, your turian friend, and the rest of your team here, in order to teach you... obedience."  
  
"Really?" Ashley snorted, crossing her arms and staring at the Shadow Broker with complete disdain. "Like you did to Miss Lawson back there? Don't know how you managed that one, but you're wrong if you think I'll be dominated like she was."  
  
The Shadow Broker reached for a control panel on his desk. "Humans. So full of pride, and yet so easy to humble. Just like your friend, Commander Shepard."  
  
He pushed a button, and the image on the screen changed. Ashley inhaled sharply as she saw the hideous sight on display.  
  
It was Shepard and Liara. The two of them had been stripped naked, their bodies covered in welts and sores. Both of them were currently being held captive in some sort of transparent plastic boxes, large enough for them to stand in but with barely enough room to take a single step. The two of them stared around their surroundings frantically, their hands pressed against the hard clear plastic and their mouths opening as if they were calling out. But either the video feed had no audio, or the boxes were sound-tight, and Ashley heard nothing.  
  
"A pity," the Shadow Broker's voice mused over the image. "I had offered Dr. T'Soni the chance to free herself and Shepard from my captivity. The freedom that only comes with death. But in the end, she was unable to fire the shot. I believe she will come to regret that decision."  
  
"Let them go, damn you!" she yelled at the screen. "Take me if you want to, dammit! But just let them go!"  
  
"Be quiet," the Shadow Broker commanded. "You are my possession now. My slave. And you would do well to remember that. It could save the lives of your friends." While he spoke, Ashley heard a quiet hissing sound, and water began to bubble out of the bottoms of Shepard and Liara's cells. As Ashley watched in horror, the water began to pool and fill the bottom of the boxes. It moved slowly, but steadily, and Shepard and Liara stared down in fear as the water level started to rise.  
  
"I am still deciding what to do with the abundance of resources you have gifted me with the captured Normandy crew," the Shadow Broker said. "Some of them I may indoctrinate into service quickly, in order to entertain the first of my Ark Facility's guests. But yourself, Vakarian, and some others of my choosing... I will break slowly. It will please me to watch as your resistance is ground down, your bodies are violated, and you are gradually converted into my willing, eager slaves."  
  
The water in the boxes had reached up to Shepard and Liara's ankles. Ashley bit back the curses in her throat.   
  
To her left, the other door into the room unlocked, and it slid open to reveal two individuals waiting on the other side.

They were both dressed identically: long dark coats, which reached down to their ankles and covered their forms almost completely. Their hands were enshrouded in the depths of their long sleeves, and not a single inch of flesh could be seen on either of their bodies. On their heads, they wore what looked like old-fashioned, 20th century gas masks, which covered their entire faces and scalps, and obscured their eyes behind tinted lenses. Their forms were so concealed by what they wore, Ash wasn't entirely positive if they were men or women.  
  
The two of them said nothing, simply drifted into the room and let the door shut and lock behind them. They approached Ashley quietly, side-by-side, and then split as they reached her. Their actions were so stiff and practiced, Ashley suspected briefly that they might be robots of some kind. One of them moved to stand in front of Ashley, while the other one took a place behind her. For a few seconds, neither of them spoke. They simply stared at Ashley silently, while the water in Shepard and Liara's cells continued to rise.  
  
"I'd like to introduce you to my slavemasters," the Shadow Broker said over the video screen, while the two mysterious figures continued to stand motionless. "They will be supervising your indoctrination, as well as that of your comrades. And they are going to give you your first lesson in obedience, as well as the penalties for insubordination. Your instructions are as follows: you will remove all of your clothing, and you will pleasure both of my slavemasters in any way they desire. Once they have both been satisfied and have given me the word, I will turn off the water and release Shepard and T'Soni. But if you do not work quickly enough... you will watch as your friends drown."  
  
"I..." Ashley started to protest, but her eyes were locked on the video in front of her, visible around the black mask of the silent slavemaster in front of her. Up on the screen, the water was about halfway up Shepard and Liara's calves. Gritting her teeth in anger, Ashley began quickly undoing the fasteners of her uniform. Her shirt was removed first, and then she struggled with her boots, cursing as she watched the water level continue to slowly rise. Finally she freed her feet from the stubborn boots, and yanked off her pants along with them. As the two slavemasters watched her silently, standing at attention without a hint of movement, she yanked off her athletic bra and tossed it aside, quickly sliding her panties down her thighs and leaving herself stark naked and shivering. By the time she was finished, her teammates were knee-deep in the water, and they pounded on the walls of their cells futilely.  
  
"Well, come on, you sick sons of bitches," Ashley snapped at the two silent watchers, standing between them confidently despite her nudity. Maybe these assholes were gonna rape her, but she wasn't going to give them the pleasure of seeing her humbled. "Take off your coats and let's get this over with."  
  
The figure in front of Ashley didn't move for a second. Ash was about ready to yell at them again, when she saw a pair of female hands emerge from the long sleeves of the coat, and reach for the belt holding the long garment shut.  
  
There was a rustle of cloth, and Ashley took a step back in shock as the figure suddenly whipped open the coat and dramatically tossed it away. Underneath the garment was a human woman's body. She wore an S&M harness - really little more than a series of straps that crisscrossed her body, but which left her breasts (huge implants, just like Miranda's) and most of the skin underneath completely exposed.  
  
Other than a pair of knee-high boots and the mask still hiding her face, the slavemaster wore one other garment: an intimidating looking strap-on. From the looks of it, it was one of those neural interface models, the expensive jobs that felt just like a real cock to the wearer. (Their hunt for the Shadow Broker had taken them to some very unsavory places.)

Behind her, she could hear the other slavemaster throw off their coat as well. Before Ashley could turn to see what her other tormenter looked like under the coat, she felt a sharp impact against the inside of her right leg, just at the knee joint. She cried out in surprise as her legs buckled out from underneath her, and she fell hard to her knees on the cold metal floor. Before she could even register the pain, however, the slavemaster behind her laid a firm hand on her back, and forcefully pushed her forward. Ash ended up bent down on her hands and knees, and watched as the other slavemaster knelt in front of her, placing the strap-on directly in front of her face.  
  
"Damn you, you sick bastard" Ashley cursed the Shadow Broker in her mind, while opening up her lips to allow the fake cock inside her mouth. Behind her, she could feel the other slavemaster rubbing a finger against her dry slit, stroking and prodding at her pussy. Ashley desperately wanted to shrink away from the unwelcome touch, but she had to put up with the humiliation. For Shepard's sake.  
  
Closing her eyes, she pretended that she was back on Eden Prime. That one night she had gotten way too drunk, and taken one of the more attractive colonists back to her living quarters for a little bit of no-strings-attached fun. She rolled her tongue around the head of the artificial prick in her mouth, trying her best to ignore the strange taste of the fake cock as she worked desperately to pleasure the Shadow Broker's sadistic henchman.  
  
Behind her, the other slavemaster's fingers had slid down against Ashley's clit, and began delicately rubbing against the sensitive bundle of nerves. She would have expected one of the Shadow Broker's minions to be rough and graceless at a task like this. But maddeningly, the man or woman behind her was doing a good job of knowing just where to touch to stimulate Ashley's baser urges. Even in this horrifying circumstance, Ashley shuddered as the unseen slavemaster played her like an instrument. Ashley realized with horror that her pussy was starting to moisten at the unknown individual's touch.  
  
She tried to put it out of her mind, forcing herself to concentrate on sucking the artificial cock in front of her. Glancing around the nearly naked woman in front of her, Ashley could see that the water level was up to Shepard and Liara's waists now. Frantically, she began working her lips around the slavemaster's cock, bringing up one of her hands from the floor to jerk at the base of her tormentor's sensory strap-on.  
  
Behind her, she could feel the other slavemaster run their hands through Ashley's moisture, sliding fingers inside of her pussy and rubbing her inner walls with a practiced touch. From the feel of it, and how long it went on, it almost seemed like they were trying to cover their entire hand with Ashley's juices. She didn't know what the other slavemaster was up to, but she wished that whatever it was that they were going to do to get themselves off, they would just get to it already. Her friends didn't have much time left.  
  
Just as she had that thought, the hand withdrew from her crotch. She was about to breathe a sigh of relief, when she felt something tickling, then pressing between her asscheeks and against her puckered anus.  
  
"Oh, no," she realized. "Lubrication. They were getting me wet for lubrication."  
  
She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, trying to ready herself for the incoming violation. But in the end, she could have never prepared enough, as the rear slavemaster started forcing their thick, slippery length straight into her rear passage.  
  
"Nnnnngh!" Ashley winced, narrowly preventing herself from clamping her teeth down on the strap-on cock in her mouth. She felt whatever was being forced inside her – cock or another strap-on, Ash couldn't tell – slowly work its way deeper and deeper up her ass. Moving gradually, not forcing its way past her clenching sphincter muscles, but slowly making them relax, to allow the thick length to penetrate further and further.

Breathing rapidly to try and distract herself from the anal intrusion, Ash pulled away from the front slavemaster's crotch long enough to check on Shepard and Liara. The water had reached their necks now, and the two women were standing on their toes, trying to keep their heads above water for as long as possible. She got barely a glance before she felt the front slavemaster's hand grip her by the hair, and then painfully yank her back into position, forcing her to wrap her lips back around the saliva-covered strap-on.  
  
The rear slavemaster had started sliding in and out of Ashley's ass. Not hard and rough, but slowly and agonizingly. Wanting Ash to get a chance to feel every single thrust, and no doubt delaying their climax in order to elongate the torture of Ashley and her friends. The fingers returned between Ashley's legs, rubbing teasingly against her damp slit and causing Ash to let out an involuntary moan around the fake cock in her mouth.  
  
"Dammit, this is taking too long!" Ashley thought frantically to herself. She rubbed and jerked at the sensory strap-on in her mouth, while thrusting back against the rigid cock in her backside. "Have to make them cum. Shepard and Liara's lives are at stake!"  
  
As she watched the water reach to the captives' chins, Ashley heard muffled moaning from the slavemaster in front of her. The woman shuddered in release, and the cock in Ashley's mouth was yanked away as the female slavemaster rose back to her feet.  
  
But the one behind her was showing no signs of stopping. Desperately, Ash doubled her efforts to force the slavemaster's cock deep inside of her. Her mind reeling, searching for any way to bring this horrible person to climax, she began babbling vulgar nonsense. "That the best you can do?" she said tauntingly. "Come on, fuck me harder! You think I'm going to lick your boots and call you master if you can't fuck any better than that? Make me _feel_ it!"  
  
As the massive length plunged in and out of her faster, Ashley let out an overheated moan. "Oh, that's more like it!" she encouraged her rapist. "You gonna cum for me? My tight little ass gonna make you cum? Harder, baby. Harder!"  
  
It was the kind of overblown, pathetic porn talk that would probably make a sick individual like this blow their load in seconds. But just as she was sure she had driven them to the edge of climax, and the fingers in her pussy were almost ready to force her into an orgasm herself, suddenly both the hand and the cock were pulled away.  
  
"What?" Ashley said, the relief of having the huge cock out of her ass dampened by the fear of what this meant. She looked up at the video monitor to see that the water in the boxes had nearly reached the top. Shepard and Liara were pressing their faces to the ceilings of the cells, struggling for the last pocket of air.  
  
Ashley stared at the front slavemaster in panic. "Tell him to shut it off!" she yelled frantically. "I did what he told me to do! Tell him I made you cum! He needs to turn off the water before they..."  
  
As Shepard and Liara were completely submerged in the water, the monitor abruptly went black. "No!" Ashley screamed. "Goddamn you, you sick bastards! Let them go!" Her eyes blazed with fury as she glared at the silent slavemaster. "I swear to God I'll choke the life out of you, you pathetic whore! Tell the Broker to let them go, you filthy little..."  
  
"Now, now, Ash," said a voice behind the mask. Reaching up, the woman undid straps behind her head, before pulling away the mask and dropping it to the floor, revealing the slavemaster's smiling, freckled face.  
  
No. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be.  
  
"Is that any way to talk to your commander?" Commander Anna Shepard said, idly rubbing at the strap-on jutting from her hips as she stared down with a casual grin.  
  
Ashley stared at her, stunned to complete silence.  
  
"Been a long time, Ash," Shepard casually said. "Like what you've done with the hair. Down like that? It really suits you." Leaning forward, she stared at Ashley's chest with a cocked eyebrow. "And your tits. Were they always that big?"

"That's not the only nice thing about her," said the muffled voice of the unseen slavemaster behind her. She came walking around Ash on spiked heels, and stood next to Shepard to reveal that she was wearing an identical outfit to the former commander of the Normandy.  
  
Only this revealing outfit gave Ashley a good look at a very different body. Large breast implants just like Shepard's, but not a pale pink set of tits, but blue with a somewhat scaly surface.  
  
Tossing away her mask, the second slavemaster brought up one of her hands, slick with Ashley's fluids, and stared Ash in the eyes as she took a long, drawn-out lick.   
  
"Ash, has anyone ever told you that your cunt is delicious?" Liara asked her genially, licking her lips as she fixed Ashley with a hungry look.  
  
"Here, let me have a taste," Shepard said, gently taking Liara's wrist and putting a glistening finger into her mouth. Liara let out an appreciative sigh as Shepard greedily sucked on her finger.  
  
"But..." Ashley finally managed to say. "The water, the cells..."  
  
Liara chuckled. "Wasn't that fun, Shepard? I wasn't sure why the master had us make that recording, put on all those fake scars and pretend like we were being drowned. But now it all makes sense."  
  
Shepard slowly pulled Liara's finger out from between her lips and nodded. "Of course it does. The master always knows what's best for us." Smiling, she reached down to play with her enhanced breasts. "And he let us get these as a reward." She turned to Ashley with a grin. "You should see them, Ash. The master bought these little spider thingies from Illium. Turn them on, and they go right in and make you all nice and pretty."   
  
Liara joined Shepard in studying Ash's chest. "Well, I imagine she probably will see them, eventually. I mean, those tits _are_ nice and all, but with a little bit extra... ooh, I got a feeling she'll be a popular slave once the guests have arrived." She gave Shepard a conspiratorial grin. "We might even have a little competition for the master's cock once we're finished breaking her in."   
  
"No, no," Ashley shook her head, wondering if this was some sort of trick. Realistic face masks, or clones or something insane like that. Anything would make more sense than what seemed to be happening in front of her eyes. "You're Commander Shepard. You're not anyone's slave."  
  
"It's so adorable watching her squirm," Liara said to Shepard, leaning against her and wrapping her arms around Shepard's waist. "Reminds me of how I was back before I surrendered myself to the master. You remember that?"  
  
Shepard brought up a hand to caress Liara's cheek, the tender gesture looking perverse with both of them standing in their S &M harnesses, strap-ons glistening with Ash's spit and pussy juices. "Of course I remember. You know, for a moment I was scared you were actually going to pick up that gun."  
  
Liara shook her head. "In the end, the choice was so simple. I knew that no matter what happened, everything would be okay as long as we were together. And I was right. But I never would have imagined it would be this wonderful."  
  
Ashley felt herself getting faint. The room seemed to be heating up around her, and the walls were spinning. "Can't be..." she muttered to herself. "Shepard, you couldn't..."  
  
Shepard leaned forward to lay a tender kiss on Liara's lips. "I love you, Liara T'Soni."  
  
"And I love you, Anna Shepard," Liara breathed. The last thing Ashley heard before he blacked out was Liara saying, "Now help our newest slave up to her feet. Wouldn't want her to miss meal time, would we?"


	24. A PET: A Battle To End All Things

She fell asleep again at some point. When she awoke, the dream she'd had still lingered in her mind. A terrible dream, of her and Shepard. Both of them completely lost to the Shadow Broker's control, obedient slaves to his will.  
  
It hurt all the more, knowing that it was a dream that was sure to come true.  
  
The door to the cell was still open. She wasn't sure how much time had passed since she had fallen asleep again. It hadn't felt like long, but with no way to know the time, she wasn't able to...  
  
"Get up," she heard the voice from outside her cell. So used to following orders by now, she obeyed almost immediately, before she even recognized the speaker.  
  
Delaana darted into the cell. "Don't say a word," she said, tossing a large bag to the floor in front of Liara. "Just put this on and get ready. It isn't going to be long before the Broker figures out what's going on here."  
  
"Delaana, I told you, I'm..." Liara started to say, but then took a second look at the asari merc. She had put on a set of battle-scarred armor, and was carrying an assault rifle strapped to her back. Several grenades hung from her belt, and she generally looked like she was ready for the battle of her life.  
  
Delaana saw the look in Liara's eyes and gave her a rueful smile. "I've done a lot of stupid, suicidal things in my life. But this one's gotta rank near the top." She shrugged. "But what the hell? I never expected to live past my maiden years, anyway. And dying in bed is for fucking losers." She glared at Liara, who was still standing and looking at her in confusion. "Dammit, get ready! I only barely dodged Bowers on my way here, and once they figure out we're coming to rescue your friends, they're going to start shoring up their defenses!"  
  
When she heard "rescue," it snapped Liara out of her startled trance. Quickly, she opened the bag, finding a suit of light armor, a pistol, and several spare heatsinks. She quickly donned the armor, the feeling of it against her skin odd after a month of forced nudity, but strangely calming. Even if she was heading to her own death, at least she would go out with dignity.   
  
This made her think of Shepard, and she immediately chastised herself. "No, don't think like that," she thought. "You're going to win. You're going to save Shepard and Miranda. You have to."  
  
After both of them had checked their weapons and activated their shields, Delaana extended a fist in Liara's direction, facing down. "Here," Delaana said.  
  
Liara stared at the offered hand in confusion, but then awkwardly bumped her fist against Delaana's.  
  
The asari merc rolled her eyes. "Open your hand, silly," Delaana said. Nodding in understanding, Liara placed her palm under Delaana's fist, and Delaana opened her hand to drop a small, white pill.  
  
"Swallow it," Delaana said. When Liara looked back up at her questioningly, Delaana groaned. "Dammit, if you don't trust me by now... look, you've been sitting on the floor of a damn cell for a month. Your muscles are most likely shot, and I imagine your biotics aren't in great shape either." She nodded down at the pill in Liara's hand. "That's a combat enhancement drug. Won't get you back up to 100%, but it'll at least make sure I don't have to carry your ass the whole damn fight. Of course, you're going to be absolutely useless in about an hour or so, but I figure by that point we'll either have won, or we'll be dead. So, won't matter either way."  
  
Liara took a deep breath, and tossed the pill into her mouth. "How long will it take to have an effect?"  
  
"Five, ten minutes," Delaana said. "Hopefully before Bowers and the rest of them figure out what's going..."  
  
Delaana's next words were cut off by the sudden drone of an emergency siren going off throughout the ship.   
  
"Fate's just out to fuck me up the ass today, isn't it?" Delaana exclaimed ruefully to the heavens. "Come on. Let's show these motherfuckers what true asari strength is all about!" Delaana picked the bag with the spare heatsinks back up and slung it across her back, and the two of them readied their weapons and charged out into the hallway.

"Delaana, you traitorous bitch!" Liara heard Bowers yelling from the other end of the long passage. Shots whizzed past them, as she and Delaana took cover behind opposite wall outcroppings. "The Shadow Broker will have your head for this!"  
  
"If he wants me, he'll have to come get me himself!" Delaana yelled back. "Not send pathetic flunkies like you after me!"  
  
"You're finished, Delaana!" Bowers yelled back, over the sound of the heavy assault rifle fire. "You better fight until you're dead! Because if I capture you alive, I'm gonna give you to the men as a reward before putting the bullet in your brain myself!"  
  
Delaana darted out to fire a burst of semi-automatic fire at the mercs. "In your dreams, you piece of shit!" she cried out, raising a hand to fire off a biotic bolt at the group before ducking back into cover. Taking a deep breath, she glanced over at Liara. "How you doing? Feeling that shit I gave you yet?"  
  
"I don't know," Liara said, not sure if the light surge of energy she was feeling was because of the drug, or just the adrenaline of suddenly being thrust into the middle of a combat zone.  
  
"Well, hopefully it'll start working soon, because otherwise we're fucked," Delaana said. "There's six of them, and only two of us. Not to mention they're already dug into cover, and they've got more weapons than us. I've faced worse odds before, but not by much."  
  
Liara nodded. If she had been with Shepard and part of their usual three-person squad, it would have been a walk in the park. But as of right now, it was essentially a one-person team: Liara could hold up a pistol, but she doubted she could aim it all that well. And with the food they'd be feeding her giving her just enough energy to not pass out from hunger, her biotics were probably worthless, too.  
  
"Gonna have to flush them out," Delaana said, reaching for one of the grenades on her belt. "Keep them scrambling so that they don't get the bright idea of charging us." She reached around to hurl the projectile blindly. Liara glanced around her cover to see the men ducking around the corner and behind wall protrusions, the projectile detonating without giving any of them a scratch. The sound of the explosion was still echoing across the walls of the corridor when the mercs were back out and firing, forcing Liara to duck out of sight again.  
  
"We're too far away," Liara said. "You'll never be able to get them out of cover from here."  
  
Delaana looked at her with a smirk. "Sure you won't change your mind about making a break for it with me? The shuttle bays are just back that way, you know?"  
  
"I know. I downloaded the ship's layout when I got here the first time. And I told you before, I'm not..." Liara trailed off, as she thought back to the first time she had come here. An idea was forming. It was absolutely crazy, but in their current circumstances, crazy might be just what they needed.  
  
She asked Delaana the question that had come to mind, and as Delaana answered, the look on her face showed she realized her former captive's intentions. Even as bullets whizzed past their heads, the asari mercenary couldn't help but laugh. "You tricky bitch!" she said, as she pulled out another grenade and got it ready. "Alright, let's go for it. I'm gonna throw this and give you some covering fire. As soon as it's out of my hand, you run, and you don't look back. I'll be right behind you."  
  
Liara nodded in understanding. She was feeling a pleasant buzz in her head, a sort of euphoria filling her entire body. Again, she wasn't sure if it was the combat drug Delaana gave her, or the thought that maybe, just maybe, they just might make it out of this.  
  
"Delaana, wait," Liara said, as Delaana readied herself to throw the grenade. "I just want you to know that, no matter how this turns out... I was wrong about you. You're not a monster."  
  
Delaana gave her a sad smile. "No, just a starry-eyed idiot," she said. "Get ready to move," Delaana primed the grenade and tossed it down the hallway with all her strength. "Go!" she yelled as she fired off wild shots in the direction of their enemies. "Keep running!"  
  
Liara did as she was commanded.

* * *  
  
"They're falling back!" Grell yelled out, as the group of mercenaries came out of cover after the second grenade explosion. "Shit, they're probably heading for the shuttle bay."  
  
"Let them," Bowers said, gesturing for the team to form up around him. "The Shadow Broker knows what's going on. He's engaged the security locks on all the shuttles. If they think they're going to escape that way, they're going to get a hard fucking lesson pretty soon." He made a gesture down the hallway. "Let's move. Take it slow, no need to rush. Let them wet their panties for a bit while they wait for us to come finish them off."  
  
They moved in formation, Roth and Okoru taking point as they progressed cautiously down the hallway. Even as much as they outmatched their opponents, they weren't taking any chances: Delaana still had some grenades left, and they all knew she might just be waiting to set an ambush.   
  
After several minutes of searching, there was still no sign of the two asari. Solvitis brought up his omni-tool, a holographic display of the ship's layout appearing in the air. "Scanning for life signs," he said, the team stopping for a moment as Solvitis searched for their quarry. "There!" he finally said. "They're in the recreation room." He zoomed in on the map, showing a layout of the room where they had spent much of their time over the last month, breaking in Shepard and Miranda. "Targets stationary. They're just standing in the middle of the room."  
  
"Why the hell would they have gone that way?" Yuri observed in confusion. "There's no weapons down there, no real place to take cover. Just..."  
  
Bowers smirked and interrupted Yuri's line of thought. "Doesn't matter. They're trapped. There's no way out of that hallway other than the way they came in. We've got them cornered like rats." He gestured with two fingers down the hall. "Roth, Okoru, move forward. We'll be right behind you. Try for non-fatal shots if possible, but don't hesitate to blow their fucking heads off if you've got no other option."  
  
The merc team made their way down the hallway, weapons shouldered, ready for anything.  
  
* * *  
  
Liara took a deep breath as the door to the room slid open. Okoru and Roth were the first ones into the room, with the rest of the team following behind. When they saw what was awaiting them inside, all of them started to chuckle.  
  
"Well, looks like we've got you cornered, little darlings," Bowers said from the rear of the group. "How long you think you'll be able to hold out there, huh?"  
  
Liara stood in the center of the room, brow furrowed in concentration as she held up a barrier around herself and Delaana. The combat drug had finally hit her system, and she felt a surge of biotic power unlike she'd ever felt before.  
  
"Long enough," Liara said, the confidence in her voice surprising even herself. "If I were you, gentlemen, I would start running."  
  
" _We_ should start running?" Bowers cackled in amusement. "Bitch, I think you overestimate your chances. All it's gonna take is for your concentration to slip, just a little bit. Once that happens, my men are gonna riddle you and that turncoat bitch with so many bullets, we'll be cleaning up what's left with a mop." He and the rest of the team relaxed, getting into position around the room and waiting in expectation for the barrier to fall.  
  
"Kinda fitting it'd all end here, don't you think?" Bowers asked, as he strolled casually around the biotic shield. "Our favorite room on the ship, where me and my boys fucked those little cunt friends of yours and turned them into obedient little cumsluts. Can't wait until we're finished off you pathetic bitches, so me and the boys can go have another go-around with your buddies. Hey, maybe we'll fuck them over your dead bodies, that'd be a fun way to celebrate, huh?"  
  
"He's trying to break your concentration," Delaana hissed to Liara. "Don't let him get to you."  
  
"I won't," Liara said, smiling over at Delaana. "Besides, it won't be long now."

Bowers slung his assault rifle onto his back, disarming himself to casually cross his arms across his chest. "Of course, your friends are a little busy right now. The Shadow Broker's got them in his office, you know. No doubt he's buried balls-deep in your little sweetie Shepard right as we speak." He glanced over at Solvitis. "Solly, what did you say the Shadow Broker was?"  
  
"A yahg," Solvitis said, pointing at Liara behind the barrier. "That's what she said he was. Some giant beast thing."  
  
"Yeah, something that size, I'm sure he's got a cock big enough to split your horny little bitch's cunt wide open," Bowers vulgarly taunted Liara. "Hell, even if you did manage to somehow beat us and free her from the Shadow Broker... you really think she's gonna want to go back to muff-diving down into your little blue cunt? Nah, once a bitch like that's had a taste of a big hard cock, she ain't never gonna go back."  
  
Liara cocked her head at Bowers. "Very descriptive. Oh, and you have about ten more seconds to talk before this is over, so please, consider your words carefully."  
  
"What the hell are you on about, bitch?" Bowers spat out. Something about the utter calmness on display from Liara was putting him on edge. "What's gonna happen in ten seconds?"  
  
But Liara ignored him, turning her attention instead to another member of Bowers's team. "Roth," she said to the bald headed human mercenary. "Your access code is 62779. You really should have chosen a better encryption algorithm. I just dabble in hacking, and even _I_ was able to figure it out."  
  
"What... what are you talking about?" Roth said, shooting a glance with his one good eye over to Bowers. "You don't think she..."  
  
They all heard it then. The men turned to face the open door to the room, and watch as the door on the other side of the hallway beeped and automatically slid open. The room behind it was a storage room like the one they were currently in, and just like that room had been hastily re-purposed when the mercenaries had arrived.  
  
Into a kennel.  
  
"Sic 'em, boys," Delaana said in sadistic glee, as the recently freed varren slowly prowled out of their opened cages and across the hall, towards the surprised mercenaries.  
  
"Shoot them!" Bowers cried out, a light touch of panic in his voice. The mercenaries grouped back up, their backs to Liara and Delaana, and aimed their weapons at the approaching animals.  
  
Roth stepped forward in front of the group, blocking their shots with his body. "No, don't!" he said, moving to crouch in front of the team and stare down the two ravenous animals. "I can calm them down, trust me!" He put away his weapon and extended his hands to the two slowly approaching varren in a placating gesture. "It's okay, boys. Daddy's here. I'm not gonna let them hurt you, okay?" He smiled at the two beasts as their growling started to lessen in volume. "That's right." He turned to look back at the rest of the mercs with a smile. "You see? They're nothing but overgrown pu..."  
  
And that was when one of the varren leaped straight at him, sending him down to the floor and locking its jaws around his throat. Before the rest of the mercs could even react, the varren had ripped through Roth's jugular, the mercenary's blood dripping from the beast's ferocious teeth.  
  
"Now!" Liara yelled, and dropped the barrier to pull out her pistol. Delaana opened fire on the still disoriented mercs, her rifle shots hitting Okoru in the back and sending him limply to the floor. The surviving mercs turned to face the new threat, only to be blindsided again as the first varren leapt from Roth's bleeding body to target Grell next, while the second varren dodged around Solvitis's wild shots to tackle the turian to the ground.  
  
"Dammit!" Bowers cried out, as he watched Yuri get hoisted into the air by Liara's biotic force, and turned into a defenseless target for Delaana's assault rifle. Looking to his side, he saw Grell shrieking hideously, struggling to grab for his shotgun with his left arm as a varren gnawed on his right arm. Solvitis had his hands locked around the other varren's throat, and was trying with all his strength to keep the beast's violently chomping jaws away from his face.

In the confusion, Bowers went to make a break for it. As he was almost to the door, he felt his leg get caught on something, and looked back to see Okoru on the ground, bleeding but still alive, gripping onto the end of his pant leg with his last remaining strength.  
  
"Please..." he heard Okoru painfully croak out. "Help me, boss..."  
  
"Get the fuck off me!" Bowers yelled, pointing his rifle down and firing shots into Okoru's face until the grip on his ankle fell away. He narrowly dodged a biotic bolt as he ducked out of the room and fled back down the hallway.  
  
Delaana surveyed the remains of Bowers's merc team before turning to Liara. "He's heading for the Shadow Broker's office. We need to get moving."  
  
Liara nodded, the two of them dodging around the bodies of the defeated mercs as they went to chase after Bowers.  
  
Just as they reached the door, there was a growling noise to their left, and Delaana turned just in time to see one of the varren look up from Grell's body to stare down Delaana. The varren leapt, and Delaana belatedly swung her assault rifle around to fire a shot, when suddenly the varren was flung sideways into the wall, a sick crunch as the beast's back was broken. Delaana turned around to see Liara lower her hand, the biotic aura around her dissipating.  
  
"Thanks, pet" Delaana said, and Liara smiled back at her. The moment was interrupted by the yells of Solvitis, who was still struggling against the remaining varren with his bare talons.  
  
"Don't worry, Solvitis," Liara said, her voice bright and pleasant as she watched the turian fight for his life against the varren. "I'm going to bring a team back to rescue you. I promise," she gestured to Delaana, and the two of them turned their backs on Solvitis and stepped out of the room. Liara slamming her fist against the lock trigger for the door as they left.  
  
* * *  
  
They eventually caught up to Bowers just outside the door to the Shadow Broker's office. His weapon had apparently been dropped in his mad dash to escape, and he was unarmed as Liara and Delaana raised their guns. "Freeze!" Liara called out. "Turn around with your hands up."  
  
Slowly, Bowers turned to face the two armed asari. "Well, well," he said, surprisingly calm in the face of the angry women. "Looks like you've got me dead to rights. Only I think there's one little thing you forgot."  
  
"You're right," Delaana said, aiming down the sights of her assault rifle. "To put a couple of bullets in your worthless brain before going in there and taking down the Shadow Broker."  
  
Bowers gave them a cocky smirk. "You think you've won, don't you?"  
  
"Your comrades are dead," Liara said. "You're unarmed, and you're in our way. Maybe we haven't won the battle yet, but you're not making it out of this alive."  
  
The mohawked merc gave a casual shrug. "Oh, I think I just might. And they'd probably agree." He pointed behind Liara and Delaana.  
  
Liara turned and spat out a curse. Behind them were the six vorcha recruits, all armed and with their weapons trained on her and Delaana.  
  
"So, how about you go ahead and drop your guns?" Bowers cockily commanded. "Before I tell these fellas here to open fire."  
  
Delaana looked over at Liara in concern. "Any bright ideas? They're too close to use a grenade, and there's no way we'll be able to take them all down before they close in on us."  
  
Liara couldn't think of anything. The vorcha started moving forward, Liara and Delaana taking a step back as the hideous beasts readied themselves for the attack.  
  
"Goddess," Liara thought to herself. "Not when we were so close. Shepard... I can't have the last time I see you be that horrible encounter in the shuttle bay..."  
  
And then she had it.  
  
"Liara, what the hell are you doing?" Delaana hissed, as Liara placed her weapon on her hip and took a step towards the advancing vorcha.  
  
"Halt!" she barked out. The vorcha, looking at her in confusion, came to a stop. "What exactly do you think you're doing?"  
  
The vorcha glanced at each other. One of them, obviously the leader of the pack, pointed at Bowers. "He say you trying to escape. He say we supposed to kill you now."

"What the hell are you talking about, mister?" Liara said, her voice powerful and commanding. "When you were brought onto this ship, what were you told was your mission?"  
  
"To protect ship for Shadow Broker!" the head vorcha proudly exclaimed. "And be de... decoys! Not know what decoys are, but we promise to do that good!"  
  
"Why are you talking to her?" Bowers protested. "Just kill them already!"  
  
Liara turned and pointed a finger at Bowers. "You shut the hell up, or I'll have Delaana shoot your cock off!" The sudden forcefulness in her voice even took Bowers aback for a second. Liara turned her attention back to the vorcha. "So, you're supposed to protect the ship."  
  
"Yes, we protect ship!" the head vorcha repeated.  
  
"And when you were told you would be protecting the ship... who were you told would be in command of the ship?" Liara said.  
  
The vorcha cocked his head, scratching at his scalp with his claws. Finally, he pointed to Liara's right. "He say that she in charge of ship!"  
  
Delaana, realizing what Liara was up to, quickly stepped toward the vorcha. "That's right. I'm your commander, and I'm here to help protect this ship!" She pointed back at Bowers. "But this man is trying to kill me, and take over the ship for himself!"  
  
"You can't be serious!" Bowers exclaimed, as the vorcha discussed this new information amongst themselves. "I know the vorcha are idiots, but there's no way they..." he pointed a finger at Liara. "She's a prisoner of the Shadow Broker! And this bitch here is helping her escape!"  
  
The head vorcha shook his head. "She not prisoner. She one of the team. You say so yourself."  
  
Bowers stared at the vorcha in disbelief. "What? I didn't say that!"  
  
"You and turian pull prank on little asari," the head vorcha said, his voice filled with pride at his reasoning skills. "Say that once you pull prank on her, she like part of family."  
  
"That's right, I'm one of the team," Liara said. "You men are smart to not let this traitor try to trick you into going against your orders like that."  
  
"Now, your _real_ commander orders you," Delaana chimed in. "Kill this piece of human trash." As the vorcha stepped around Liara and Delaana to advance upon Bowers, Delaana quickly added. "Oh, and don't bother with the weapons. Do it with your bare hands. And teeth."  
  
Bowers took a step back in fear, as the vicious vorcha horde advanced on him. "No, stop! I'm the Shadow Broker's second in command! I'm the one in charge here, not her!"  
  
"Pretty asari call us smart," the head vorcha said. "You call us stupid. We no like be called stupid!"  
  
"It was a joke!" Bowers said, taking another step back and holding his hands up. "Only a joke!"  
  
"Human always joking. Pulling pranks. We no like jokes," the head vorcha said, as he gnashed his fangs. "Me show you what we like!"  
  
"No, no! Stop, please!" Bowers fell backwards onto the floor, and the vorcha swarmed over him. "I'm in charge here, I'm in.... aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAH!"  
  
Liara winced. Bowers hadn't been wrong. What the vorcha could do with their teeth was not a pretty picture at all.


	25. A PET: Lair of the Shadow Broker

After watching Bowers's grisly fate, Delaana ordered the vorcha to patrol the ship, and search for any more of the "mutineers." As much as it would have been nice to have a team of vorcha watching their back for what was to come next, Liara doubted they'd be able to convince even these dim beasts to attack the Shadow Broker. Both because they knew he was supposed to be the commander above Delaana, and mostly out of the varren's natural instinct towards self-preservation.  
  
They were going to have to do this next part on their own.  
  
She felt her mind flashing back to this moment from the last time. Stepping into the Shadow Broker's office a month ago, no idea what she was about to face, and nervous about the possibilities.  
  
Now, she was even more scared. Because it wasn't just her petty revenge on the line now. It was the life of herself and the woman she loved.  
  
When they stepped into the room, the Shadow Broker was waiting for them, in the same chair he had been in when they had entered the first time a month ago. He seemed calm in the face of their arrival, his eight eyes locked on them as they advanced.  
  
"It seems Bowers and his team were not up to the task," the Shadow Broker observed casually. "I will need to take more care in my recruitment efforts the next time."  
  
"There isn't going to be a next time," Liara exclaimed. "You're finished."  
  
The Broker let out a deep rumble, probably his species' version of a laugh. "I seem to remember you expressing a similar sentiment the last time we met, Dr. T'Soni. What makes you believe that you will fare any better this time around?"  
  
"You killed my friend Feron," Liara snapped. "You turned people I cared about into your playthings, brainwashed them into your slaves. You tried to take everything away from me, even my own mind!" Liara bared her teeth at the hideous monster. "The last time I entered this room, I wanted to defeat you. This time, the only thing I have left to live for is to see you dead!"  
  
"Your courage is admirable, in the face of what has been done," the Broker said. "But I'm afraid it's time to put your escape attempt to an end. You may have killed the rest of them, but I still have one more tool at my disposal."  
  
The door on the platform behind the Shadow Broker opened, and Liara felt a chill as she saw who emerged.  
  
Stepping to the ramps on either side of the platform, the Shadow Broker's last two soldiers descended onto the field of battle. Miranda from the left side, and Shepard from the right. Each of them still naked with their collars, and each of them with an assault rifle in their hands.  
  
"Drop your weapons," the Shadow Broker said, as the two human women joined him at his sides. "Or I will order these women to open fire upon you. Unfortunately, I have little doubt your weapons would tear their unprotected bodies to shreds if you would decide to return fire upon them. Or you could let them kill you, if you prefer."  
  
Delaana looked over at Liara. "Let me take the shots. I can incapacitate them without killing them, I promise."  
  
"No," Liara whispered back. There was no 100% certain disabling wound. She wasn't going to take the chance of Delaana accidentally killing one of them.  
  
"Well, what the hell are we supposed to do, then?" Delaana asked. "There's no damn way I'm dropping my weapon for this bastard. Not when we've come this far."  
  
Liara turned back to the Shadow Broker, the horrid monster calmly sitting while Shepard and Miranda stared at him lovingly, waiting for his orders. The whole sight of it disgusted Liara more than she could have ever imagined.  
  
"So, after all this, _this_ is how you claim victory," Liara finally said to the Shadow Broker. "Hiding behind women, too afraid to face us yourself."  
  
The Shadow Broker stared at her intently. "Your attempts to goad me into a fight will not work this time, Dr. T'Soni. I have already shown my superiority to you once; I feel no need to demonstrate it again."

"Is that really what it is?" Liara put a caustic tone to the question. "Or is the truth that you just got lucky the last time? You had me in your clutches then. Right in the palm of your hand. A simple squeeze, and I would have been dead, and you would have had only Shepard to contend with. So now I'm wondering: did you make Shepard drop her gun because you wanted to show her she'd already been defeated... or were you worried that if she didn't, she was going to kill you?"  
  
The Shadow Broker let out a deep breath. "You would do well not to provoke me, T'Soni. If I wished, I could reach my hand out right now, and snap your Shepard's neck without a second thought."  
  
"But then you wouldn't have a defenseless woman to hide behind anymore," Liara said, her voice filled with disgust. "Tell me, is that how you defeated the previous Shadow Broker? Cowering behind a human shield?  
  
Standing up from his chair, the Shadow Broker let out a deep, guttural snarl. "You have ten seconds, before I tell these women to shoot! Drop your weapon right now."  
  
"Fine," Liara said, tossing her pistol at her feet and glaring at the Shadow Broker. "But no matter what happens to me or my friends, I'll go to whatever fate I'm destined for knowing that you couldn't defeat me. That for all your claims of superiority, you are worse than a slave. Worse than a pet."  
  
Liara took a step towards the Shadow Broker and spat out the last words. "You're a coward."  
  
With a furious growl, the Shadow Broker charged at her. Liara dropped down to scoop up the pistol at her feet before rolling away, the Shadow Broker hitting the wall behind her and seeming to shake the whole ship with the impact.  
  
"Take this, you bastard!" Delaana yelled out, pouring bullets into the Broker's kinetic shield as he recovered from the impact. As her thermal clip was exhausted, she grabbed one of her two remaining grenades and flung it in the Broker's direction. By this time, however, the beast had recovered, and he triggered his omnishield and ducked behind it, the blast going off harmlessly around him.  
  
"Aim carefully!" Liara yelled to Delaana. "Don't hit Shepard and Miranda in the crossfire!" She looked over in concern at the two human females, who simply watched and waited for the next orders from their master.  
  
"Hit him with a singularity," Delaana called out. "I'll try to take down his shield with disruptor ammo!"  
  
Liara nodded, firing off the biotic pulse and watching in satisfaction as the Shadow Broker reared back in pain. Delaana fired off several short bursts, and by the time her next clip was gone, her shots had overloaded his shields and impacted against his body armor.  
  
Liara's feeling of elation at their progress turned sour, however, when she saw the Broker trigger the powerful shield he had used in their previous battle. Delaana's shots bounced off the protective barrier, and Liara watched in horror as the beast reached behind his back to pull out his M-76 Revenant and swing to point it at Shepard. "Now, T'Soni, you will watch as I kill the woman you love!"  
  
"NO!" Liara screamed, her body flooding with adrenaline as she charged at the Shadow Broker. Cocking back her fist and charging it with all of the biotic force she could muster, she sent a punch straight into the side of the Shadow Broker's head. It might have been the combat enhancer, or just the fear for Shepard, but whatever it was, it put enough power into her blow to send the Shadow Broker reeling.  
  
"This is for what you did to Shepard!" Liara cried out, throwing another fierce, biotically charged punch into the monster's face. "And this is for Miranda!" she threw another blow, the Shadow Broker taking a step backwards from the impact. "And this is for Feron!" Liara charged in with another strike, and the Broker snarled as he felt the force of her fist.  
  
Her punches were working to keep the Shadow Broker at bay, but she couldn't keep this up forever. She could already feel the rush of the combat enhancement drug starting to wear off. There wasn't much time left.

She swung at the Broker again, but she was too slow, and the Broker took a step back to evade her blow, leaving her off-balance. Before she could react, the Shadow Broker raised up his omnishield, ready to bring it down onto Liara's head.  
  
"Watch out!" she heard Delaana cry out, and then Liara was shoved aside, the Broker's blow just barely missing her and sparking off the metal deck. Delaana's desperate push left her and Liara sprawled on the floor, and before Liara could regain her feet, she could see the Shadow Broker grab Delaana off the ground and dangle her in the air.  
  
"A familiar situation we find ourselves in, Dr. T'Soni," the Shadow Broker said, holding the helpless Delaana aloft and putting her on display for Liara. The asari mercenary kicked in the air, clawing ineffectually at the fingers around her throat. "Now then: drop your weapon and surrender, and I will allow you and your comrade here to join Shepard and Miranda as my slaves, rather than kill you as you deserve."  
  
"Shoot the fucker," Delaana choked out from the Broker's grasp. "Don't worry about me. I saw..." Her next words were cut off by the tightening of the Broker's fingers around her neck.  
  
Liara aimed her pistol at the Broker, but her aim wavered. "Shoot him," a voice in Liara's head urged. "You have to save Shepard. Don't worry about her. She's just an Ardat-Yakshi."  
  
"No," she said under her breath. "I can't do it."  
  
Delaana saw Liara's hesitation, and her expression turned mournful. "Liara, listen to me," she barely managed to say as the Shadow Broker squeezed on her throat. "I'm happy I got to know you. And I'm so sorry for everything I've done. To you... to everyone." She saw tears start to flow from Delaana's eyes as she said. "And I know you could never feel the same way... but I love you."  
  
And with that, Delaana reached for her belt, pulled off her last grenade, and shoved her hand as far as she could into the Shadow Broker's throat. "Suck on this, you fucker!" she screamed, as the Broker's teeth clamped down on her arm and bit deep into her flesh.

Liara got to her feet and watched helplessly, as the Shadow Broker snarled and choked around Delaana's arm thrusting down his esophagus. The yahg released his grip on Delaana, but she grabbed with her other hand onto the side of the Broker's face, clinging with all her strength while the Shadow Broker desperately tried to shake her away. Her blood dripped down the Shadow Broker's chin in sick purple spurts, as the yahg's vicious teeth cut deeper into her arm, still buried down his throat.  
  
Raising her pistol, Liara tried to aim a shot at the Shadow Broker. But he was thrashing around wildly, Delaana dangling from his face and in Liara's line of fire, and Liara suddenly realized that her hands had started to shake.  
  
"The combat drug," Liara thought. "It's wearing off!" Even now, she could feel the sense of euphoria and power that had flooded her earlier, start to dampen and recede. Her legs felt weak under her, as a month's worth of muscle atrophy started to catch up with her.  
  
As Liara fought against the weakness, trying to get a good aim on her enemy, the sound of crunching bone echoed across the walls of the Shadow Broker's office. With a spurt of blood, Delaana fell away from the Broker's scissoring maw, a ragged stump where her arm had been severed by the Broker's teeth, just above the elbow. Grabbing onto her with his free hand, the Shadow Broker yanked her limp form away and tossed it across his office. Delaana hit the ground in a heap and laid still.  
  
Staring over at Liara, the Shadow Broker leaned back and spat in her direction. Liara took a quick step back, just as Delaana's dismembered arm struck the floor in front of her in a pool of purple fluids.  
  
"And now, Dr. T'Soni, you will..." the Shadow Broker started to say, then followed Liara's gaze down to Delaana's arm.  
  
The severed limb's hand was empty.  
  
The Shadow Broker had time to look back up at Liara with a snarl of anger, before the grenade went off inside of him. The explosion was muffled, and contained within the yahg's thick skin, but the Shadow Broker roared in pain nonetheless. Liara stepped toward the moaning monster, watching with satisfaction as the Shadow Broker fell forward onto his knees. Groaning through his death throes, the Broker clutched at his insides with one hand, while using the other to...  
  
Liara took a step back in shock, as the Shadow Broker weakly managed to raise the Revenant still in his hand. "You..." the dying creature spat out blood and liquefied bits of his entrails as he took aim at Liara. "You... may have defeated me, Dr. T'Soni. But... you... you won't leave this ship... alive..."  
  
In vain, Liara tried to raise a barrier against the shots. But the combat drug had almost completely worn off, and her shield fizzled and died almost as soon as she summoned it. She felt drained, too weak to even try and dodge the incoming bullets. The Shadow Broker steadied his shaking hand and, with his last bit of energy, he made to pull the trigger.  
  
"Shepard, I'm sorry," Liara said, closing her eyes and waiting for it. "I came so close..."  
  
Shots rang out, and Liara waited for the sting of the bullets. It was a second before she realized that she felt absolutely nothing. She opened her eyes to see the Revenant drop out of the Broker's hand to the floor. With one last dying gurgle, the Shadow Broker pitched forward and fell dead. Liara saw several smoking holes in the fabric of his suit as he fell, bullets having struck him from behind.  
  
And standing behind him, Shepard lowered her assault rifle. "Liara," she said, dropping the weapon and rushing towards her in concern. "Are you okay, Liara?"  
  
"Shepard," Liara said, before feeling herself weakly tumbling forward. All of her strength was gone, but as she felt Shepard catch her mid-fall, the realization of it all filled her with waves of relief.  
  
It was over. They had actually won. She started sobbing into Shepard's shoulder, almost unable to believe that they had succeeded.   

Mustering her strength, she managed to pull slightly away from Shepard and stare at her in wonder. "But... I thought the Broker had you under his control."  
  
"He did," Shepard said numbly. "I would have done almost anything for him." She smiled weakly. "But I could have never let him hurt you. If he had given that order, I would have shot myself before I would have even considered firing on you."  
  
Tears streaked her face, as she raised a trembling hand to stroke Shepard's cheek. "Shepard, I... I lo..."  
  
"You killed him," they heard a voice behind them, and both of them turned to see Miranda standing over the corpse of the Shadow Broker. "You killed the master." She stared up with anger in her face, her own rifle still clutched in her hands. "You ruined everything!"  
  
"Miranda, listen to me," Shepard said, making sure that Liara was steady on her feet before walking towards Miranda. "Just drop the gun, and calm down."  
  
"But he was going to take us to the facility!" Miranda cried out, face twisted with sorrow. "We were going to be his favorite pets! How could you do this?"  
  
Shepard raised her hands. "Miranda, I want you to think about who we were before all this. Remember the Collectors, the Reapers. Remember our mission, to save the galaxy."  
  
"But I don't want to remember," Miranda protested, shaking the rifle in her hands like a petulant child with her favorite toy. "I just want to fuck. I'm so horny, Shepard." She looked down to leer at Shepard's body as she approached, and lazily smiled. "Will you fuck me, Shepard? It's been too long since I got to eat your pussy. Come on, let's fuck."  
  
"We will," Shepard said, now standing close to Miranda. "Just hand me the rifle, and I promise that we'll fuck later."  
  
Miranda pouted. "Aw, why later?" she said, but nonetheless handed the assault rifle over to Shepard. "Don't forget, you promised to fuck me."  
  
"I know," Shepard said. "Now, how about we..."  
  
"Shadow Broker, this is Operative Murat," said a voice from the direction of the other side of the room. All three of them turned to see a series of holographic displays hovering, showing voice connections with the Broker's various operatives. "Awaiting information on current directives. Can you confirm status?"  
  
"Operative Shora requesting update," said another voice, female. "Are you still there, Shadow Broker?"  
  
A few voices soon turned into dozens, voices from the galaxy waiting for further orders from their master.  
  
The Shadow Broker's entire information network, waiting for him to respond.  
  
Liara took a step forward.  
  
"Liara, what are you doing?" Shepard asked, as she and Miranda watched Liara stumble weakly toward the array of communication displays.  
  
In that moment, even when all she wanted to do was lie down and rest... she knew what she had to do. It would be hard work. And she and Shepard would have to be apart for some time. That was the hard part of making this decision.  
  
But if Feron's death... Delaana's death... all of their suffering was going to have any meaning at all, she would have to do it.  
  
After agonizingly forcing her weakened body to step up to the panels, Liara tapped a display and opened a line of communications to all of them simultaneously. "This is the Shadow Broker," she said, her voice being distorted and carried out all across the Shadow Broker's network. "An urgent situation required my attentions elsewhere. However, it is now under control. Resume standard procedures. I want a status report on all operations within the next solar day. Shadow Broker out."  
  
It was done. Liara terminated the connections and then fell to her knees. Shepard's arms wrapped around her from behind, and Liara leaned back into her embrace.  
  
"You sure about this, Liara?" Shepard said softly. "After all we've been through, you think you'll be able to manage all this?"  
  
"I have to," Liara said, trying her best to sound strong despite the weakness in her limbs. "We still have a war to fight out there. We can't afford to forget that. And with the Shadow Broker's contacts, I can do more damage in this ship than I could with a gun out in the field. I need to do this, Shepard," Liara turned slowly to face her as she added, "And I want to do this."

"Okay," Shepard said. "We should get a message off to the Normandy. Let them know to come get us."  
  
Liara nodded. "We will. But first... help me to my feet," Liara stumbled a bit, but she managed to keep upright as Shepard lifted her up from the floor. "There's something else I have to do first."  
  
She walked across the room, past the still remains of their tormenter and captor, to the crumpled form of Delaana up against a wall. Kneeling down, she laid a hand on Delaana's shoulder. "Thank you," she said. "You may have done some terrible things in your life. But we all owe our freedom... our lives to you. May you find peace in the embrace of the Goddess."  
  
"Wh... while I appreciate the thought," said a weak, strained voice from the floor, "Right now I think I'd find a lot more peace with some medigel and the strongest fucking painkillers on the ship."


	26. A PET: Fond Farewells

"Have you ever seen anything more beautiful in your life?" Shepard said, looking out of the side window of Liara's office at the sleek lines of the Normandy SR-2, pulling into position alongside the ship that had been their prison for a month.  
  
"One or two things," Liara said, looking over at Shepard and fixing her with a warm smile.  
  
Shepard shook her head, rubbing at her neck. Even after two days, the area where the Broker's collar had once pressed against her flesh still felt raw and uncomfortable. "Better cut that out," she said, not unkindly but still firm. "Much as I might want to right now... I want our next time together to be when I'm not under the influence of some perverted monster's mind control drug."  
  
Liara nodded in understanding. One of the first things she had done, once she had gotten access to all the Shadow Broker's records, was find out as much as she could about the drug he had been using on Shepard and Miranda. From the looks of his research notes on the final formula, the effects of the chemicals required the victim to be given a regular dose of the drug on a minimum of a weekly basis. After seven days, Liara determined, the drug would be completely purged from Shepard and Miranda's systems.  
  
Shepard had been doing well, though, even after only two days of withdrawal. Every so often, though, Liara would see it in her eyes. That hungry look that left no question as to what was going on in Shepard's mind, the chemically-induced desires that were threatening to take her over with even a momentary slip of her self-control. But after a few seconds, Shepard would pause, take a breath, and the urges would subside.  
  
"How's Miranda doing?" Liara asked, as she walked over to the control panel to allow the Normandy to dock with them.  
  
Shepard looked uncertain. "She still seems a bit out of it. It was only this morning that she finally stopped asking when we were going to... have sex again. Hopefully after a few days, once the treatment is done, she'll be back to normal again."  
  
The treatment. After they had gotten in touch with the Normandy, and let Joker finish his stream of excited whoops followed by groveling apologies for leaving them, Shepard had had a long, serious talk with Jacob. About a subject Liara hadn't really expected: the Teltin facility. Shepard told Jacob that she had received a message from the Illusive Man after they had destroyed the horrible labs, where Jack and other children had been experimented on. According to the message, Cerberus had come to the facility after the riot that had freed Jack, found all the guards dead, and given all the children still remaining there "mild amnesic treatments." Treatments that had blocked out all memories of ever having been in that terrible place.  
  
"Considering that the Normandy used to be a Cerberus vessel," Shepard had said to Jacob, "would we happen to have the necessary resources to perform those same amnesic treatments on two adult humans?"  
  
Jacob had confirmed that yes, they could remove Shepard and Miranda's memories of their captivity with the Shadow Broker. Liara had been nervous about Shepard's choice. The idea of having a piece of memory wiped out, just like it never happened, was a frightening thought.

But she hadn't been through the same horrors that Shepard and Miranda had been through, and she wouldn't dare begrudge either of them of their right to have the experiences of this past month taken away. Especially when such burdens could prove to be a hindrance in the upcoming fight against the Reapers.   
  
"You sure you're going to be okay by yourself?" Shepard asked her. "I'm sure we could spare an extra day and stay for a while if you like."  
  
"I'll be fine," Liara assured her. "Poring through the Shadow Broker's records, looking at all the information he had at his disposal... I've got a lot of work to keep me occupied, Shepard." She gave Shepard a wan smile. "To be honest, I'll be lucky if I find enough time to eat and sleep, much less dwell upon the things we've been through." Liara turned to stare out into the stars, her tone turning melancholy as she added. "And the people we've lost."  
  
Shepard said nothing, just placed her arm around Liara's shoulders in a gesture of understanding.   
  
They had found the body yesterday, while conducting a search around the ship. Feron's corpse had been tossed like garbage into a back closet, slumped next to the body of the Cerberus mole Hawkins. Liara wasn't sure why the Shadow Broker had told his men to not dispose of the bodies, but Liara was at least glad for that. Shepard had promised that, when the Normandy was in the area, they would deliver the drell's body to Kahje. Liara had used her newly-acquired Shadow Broker connections to ensure that Feron would be given a resting place of honor, in a tomb normally reserved for the most honored servants of the hanar Compact.   
  
It was the least that she could do, after they had failed to save him.   
  
"Well, they should be disembarking right now," Shepard said. "Coming to send me off?"  
  
"Go on ahead," Liara said, pulling away from Shepard's arm with a smile. "I'll be there in a few minutes."  
  
Shepard started to say something, but then nodded in understanding. "Take your time. We'll be waiting for you."  
  
As Shepard made her way towards the shuttle bay, Liara checked one more time on the Shadow Broker's control panel. Positive that there were no pressing matters, she left the office as well. Her path taking her in a different direction than Shepard. A very familiar path.  
  
* * *  
  
"Hey, saw that your buddies arrived," Delaana said, looking up from placing several books into a duffel bag as Liara entered what had once been Delaana's office. "Think I'll be heading off soon, myself. You know, for some reason, packing up all my shit is taking a lot longer than it used to." Delaana smirked, as she waved the bandaged stump of her right arm.  
  
"You know," Liara said, as she stood and marveled at Delaana's energized state, "most people would need a lot more time to recover, after receiving an injury like that. At the very least, more than a day."  
  
Delaana chuckled softly. "Well, as I'm sure you'll agree, I ain't most people," she said, and laughed again. It was a marked contrast from her old style of laughing: caustic and mocking, as if she only found humor in other people's misfortune. Now, it sounded warm and sincere, like a laugh shared between old friends. "Besides, I think Miranda did a pretty good job on patching me up. Girl's got a talent for bringing folks back from the dead, I suppose."   
  
Liara nodded, her memory going back to those moments after the former Shadow Broker was defeated. When they had discovered that Delaana was still alive, they had rushed the bleeding, near-dead asari to the sickbay. After some coaxing, and more promises of carnal rewards later, Miranda had recovered her memories of her previous life enough to put her medical skills to use at stabilizing Delaana. Despite Shepard's worries about Liara weakening herself further in her state of withdrawal, Liara had insisted that Miranda draw as much of her blood as was needed to keep Delaana alive. After nearly draining through the entire stocks of the ship's medigel to stop the bleeding, they had finally managed to draw Delaana back from death's door.

And now here she was, only two days later, walking around like it was just another day. Except for the lack of her lower right arm, of course. As Liara watched, Delaana made to reach for one of her books with her missing hand, only to curse and grab it with her left instead. From the annoyed look on her face, it definitely wasn't the first time she had done that today.  
  
"I'm glad that you're feeling alright. Still, if you need more time to recover," Liara said, walking over to help Delaana in packing up her belongings, "you know you can stay here as long as you need to."  
  
Delaana shook her head in response. "Nah, honestly, I'm not sure how much longer I can stand the sight of this ship. Lot of bad memories I want to leave behind." She turned to Liara with haunted eyes. "Sins I need to purge."  
  
"You're still sure about this?" Liara said, taking one of Delaana's books from her hand and carefully finding a place for it in the duffel bag. "My offer still stands. Becoming the new Shadow Broker... I'm going to need operatives I can trust."  
  
"I appreciate it, but I can't shoot for shit with my left," Delaana said. "Never been one of those amba... ambli..."  
  
"Ambidextrous," Liara helpfully offered.  
  
Delaana looked at Liara with a crooked grin. "There you go again, Miss Smarty Pants. Always gotta prove you know more than me, huh?" she said, friendly mockery in her voice.   
  
"But I'm serious. I don't just need people to fight for me," Liara said. "I'm sure I could find other work for you to do."  
  
"Thanks, but I think my days of hiring myself out as a mercenary for ruthless information brokers are over," Delaana said, and then glanced away as she added, "no matter how pretty they may be."  
  
"Delaana, I..."  
  
Taking a seat in the chair Liara had found her in so many times before, Delaana rubbed at her forehead with her remaining hand. "I've done so many horrible things, Liara. To you, to so many others. And just because I changed my mind in the end and helped you, it doesn't wipe that debt away. When I ran away from home, I told myself that they were wrong about me. That I wasn't a monster just because of how I was born." Delaana smiled bitterly. "And so I went out in the world... and proved them all right. Maybe I wasn't born a monster, but I became one all the same. I could rationalize it all I want, tell myself they left me no other choice... but that's all bullshit. I did it all because I wanted to, hurt so many people because I enjoyed it... and now I'm going to have to make amends for that."  
  
"So make amends," Liara said, sitting on the edge of the desk in front of Delaana, looking down at her compassionately. "There's a whole galaxy out there, people you could help. You don't have to do this."  
  
Delaana placed a gentle hand on Liara's knee. "Liara... even if I decided to do that, I'm still a fugitive Ardat-Yakshi. Not to mention all the other crimes I'm wanted for, the people I've hurt who might come for revenge against me. If I got in that shuttle and set out on my own... I'd be back to looking over my shoulder, always wondering who would come for me." Waving her bandaged stump, she smirked. "And I doubt I'll be able to fight them off anymore. Even if I wanted to."  
  
Standing up, Delaana grabbed her duffel bag and placed the strap over her shoulder. "I don't want to run anymore, Liara. I don't want to fight, I don't want to kill. I just... want to rest. And there's only one place where that's possible. Where I know no one will ever come for me. And in the monastery... I'll get all the time I want to read all the poetry I could ever want. Even the sappy romantic ones."  
  
Liara laid a hand on Delaana's shoulder. "But all the places you wanted to see. The fields of Verdenis, the rest of the galaxy... once you turn yourself in to the monastery, you'll never get the chance."  
  
Delaana looked down at her feet, inhaled deeply, and looked back at Liara with glistening eyes. "Do you remember, just before I came to your cell to help you beat the Shadow Broker? Do you remember what happened in this office that night?"  
  
"I... I was delirious," Liara said, pained at having to relive these moments, but doing it for Delaana's sake. "I thought you were Shepard, and we..."

"We melded," Delaana said with a soft smile. "And when our minds linked, Liara, I saw... all of it. The ancient remnants of the Protheans. The dozens of planets you visited with Shepard and her crew. The battles you've fought, the people you've lost. Every sight, every sound, every emotion you felt... I lived it all through your memories. You've seen more in your 108 years than I could have ever imagined seeing in my entire life."   
  
Placing her own hand on Liara's shoulder, she sighed as she continued. "And you've loved, Liara. The love you felt for Shepard... I felt it along with you. And even now, long after I touched your mind... it overwhelms me to remember those feelings. Even if I die as a matriarch, hundreds of years for now... I will never forget how that felt. How you feel for her."  
  
Leaning towards her, Delaana placed a gentle kiss on Liara's cheek. "The gift you've given me is priceless, Liara T'Soni. It will carry me through the centuries of captivity ahead of me, and I don't believe I can ever truly repay it."  
  
"Delaana, that love I have for Shepard," Liara said, "if you hadn't done what you did, put your life at risk... I would have lost it forever. As far as I'm concerned, you've already repaid me."  
  
She wrapped her arms around Delaana's waist, and Delaana raised her remaining arm to lay it across Liara's back. They embraced for several seconds, and then Delaana pulled away, walking slowly towards the door.  
  
"Liara," Delaana paused just as the door slid open. "The other things I saw in your mind... the Reapers," she turned to fix Liara with a grave expression. "You really think Shepard can beat those things?"  
  
"I have no doubt she can," Liara said.  
  
Delaana nodded. "I hope you're right. Otherwise, I'm not sure my peaceful life in the monastery is going to last that long at all." She furrowed her brow. "Keep strong for her, Liara. More than anything, she's going to need people she can rely on. The weight she's going to have to bear, the hard choices she's going to have to make... she's going to need you there for her if we're going to make it out of all this alive."  
  
"I know," Liara said. "And I'll stay strong for her, I promise."  
  
"Glad to hear it," Delaana said, as she turned to make her departure.  
  
Liara called out to her. "Wait!" When Delaana turned back around, Liara said, "I've been looking over the surveillance feeds set up by the Shadow Broker's agents. For some reason, he seemed to think that the library of the Ardat-Yakshi monastery on Sanves required his personal attention. I believe that if someone were to sit at the table directly under the painting of Athame, their words would be heard quite clearly even if they were speaking softly." She gave Delaana a meaningful look as she said. "So... if a person were to ever need something, anything at all, and the Shadow Broker felt like she owed them... that person might decide to sit at that table and ask for it."  
  
Delaana gave her a warm, genuine smile. It made her look radiantly beautiful. "Well, if I run into a person who wants to talk to the Shadow Broker... who cares for her very much, in fact... I'll be sure to let them know."  
  
"Goodbye, Delaana."  
  
"Bye, pet," Delaana turned and raised her left hand in farewell, as she walked out the door and it slid shut behind her.  
  
* * *  
  
After that, Liara spent as much time as she could with Shepard and the crew of the Normandy. Tears were shed all around, even by people Liara wouldn't have expected it from. Liara was surprised to see Ashley among the group, her former comrade explaining that the Alliance had secretly assigned her to the Normandy to assist in the search for Shepard. As Liara and her fellow captives were warmly comforted by Liara's old friends and Shepard's new shipmates, Liara's eyes caught Garrus. Standing apart from the group, he stared at Shepard like she was a mirage that would fade away at any moment. There was a part of Liara that felt like she should be jealous, but she had to trust Shepard if they were going to have any sort of future. Shepard had promised that she would end things with Garrus, and Liara believed her.

Soon, it was time for them to say their farewells. Shepard seemed to never want the reunion to end, and Liara understood why: once she took the Cerberus amnesic drugs, she would have no memory that any of this ever happened.   
  
Eventually, though, reality invaded. There were duties the crew of the Normandy had to perform, after all; Hackett, having heard about Shepard's recovery, had sent a message about another prisoner that needed to be freed. Amanda Kenson, an old friend of the Admiral's, had been taken hostage by batarians, and although Hackett knew that Shepard would need time to recover from her ordeal, he had no one else to turn to in order to undertake a rescue.  
  
So they had all left, Shepard sharing one last kiss with Liara before departing on the Normandy. Liara was alone on the Shadow Broker's ship... her ship. Delaana was already gone by the time Liara had arrived on the shuttle bay to see the Normandy crew, and the vorcha soldiers had been paid for their "services" and sent away from the ship a few hours earlier. Although Liara had no doubts the vorcha would have been loyal to the new Shadow Broker, she had no desire to share her ship with Shepard and Miranda's former rapists.  
  
She was alone. Well, mostly alone.  
  
"Shadow Broker, reports have arrived from several of your operatives. Strange signals have been emanating from the Bahak system that they believe require your attention," said Glyph, as the information drone materialized next to her on her way into the office.  
  
"Thank you, Glyph. Have them forwarded to my personal terminal; I'll look over them later."  
  
Walking up the ramp, Liara stepped into the back room. "So many things to deal with," Liara said out loud. "A Shadow Broker's work is never finished, it appears."  
  
Stepping up to the control panel for the video archive, Liara pressed a series of buttons. Screens flared to life all around her, and a series of schematics and blueprints hovered in the air.  
  
"The Ark Facility," she mused, studying all of the information carefully. "A safe haven from the Reapers, the Shadow Broker called it. For an astronomical fee, his patrons would earn themselves a spot in a self-sustaining, fully functional recreational and living facility, buried fifteen miles underground. And those lucky patrons would get to indulge themselves in the services of a wide range of broken, obedient sex slaves while they waited out Armageddon. With myself as the Shadow Broker's most treasured plaything, I would imagine."  
  
Pressing some more buttons on the control panel, Liara brought up a long document. A list of names: the "privileged residents" of the Ark Facility, along with the amounts of their donations.  
  
"The Ark Facility will go ahead as planned," Liara said out loud, as she made notes to herself on her omnitool. "All donors will be asked to arrive in two weeks' time, or else forfeit their money. As they start to arrive, they will be given every courtesy, and be allowed to make themselves at home. And once I am sure that all of the residents are in place... I believe we will need to put the facility on lockdown. Quietly evacuate all personnel, and have them disable the elevator on their way out. Preferably with explosives, just to be sure there is no chance that any of the 'privileged residents' are ever able to leave."  
  
Liara turned to Glyph, a closed-mouth smile on her face. "Glyph, how long did you say the food stores will last down there?"  
  
"With proper refrigeration and cooling, approximately 500 years," Glyph answered.  
  
Liara pondered this. "And if the men I assign to supervise the facility were to sabotage the refrigeration and cooling units on their way out?"  
  
"In those circumstances, it would take approximately two weeks for all of the food to become spoiled and inedible," Glyph said.  
  
This made Liara's smile grow wider. "Yes, I believe that should do nicely." In her mind, she saw the wealthy clients of the Shadow Broker, trapped miles under the ground, fighting amongst themselves for the last scraps of unspoiled food before their strength gave out and they died of starvation. It was a strangely pleasing image, and one that Liara carried with her as she walked over to the other side of the room.

"Quite a terrible fate for them, I imagine," she said, as she picked up a gleaming object from a side-table. "But then again... I suppose they could have it worse. Much worse."  
  
She walked up to the bleeding, moaning form strung up from the ceiling. "So sorry to keep you waiting," she said, strolling around the struggling man and running a finger against one of his open wounds. "Solvitis."  
  
While Delaana was still healing up in the medbay, Liara had managed to convince the vorcha that she was their commander in the meantime. (And, as the new Shadow Broker, technically she wasn't lying.) So when the vorcha had found Solvitis – barely alive and with a strangled varren dead at his side – in the torture room where she and Delaana had left him, they had immediately reported this information to their new commander.   
  
Liara had quietly ordered them to secure the turian in the cell where she and her friends had been held for a month. Needless to say, Shepard and the rest of the women on the ship had no interest in visiting that room any time soon, so only Liara had known about the turian's survival.  
  
And before the vorcha had left, while everyone else was asleep, Liara had ordered them to have Solvitis moved here, into the office where she would be spending most of her time. And so here he hung, staring down at Liara with frightened eyes, a gag in his mouth and his arms wrenched upwards and tied above his head.  
  
"You seem to be in the habit of surviving when everyone believes you to be dead, Solvitis," Liara said, as she fiddled with the object in her hand and paced back and forth in front of the helpless turian. "I think you'll agree, though: this time, you could hardly consider that to be a fortunate happenstance."  
  
Liara paraded in front of him, enjoying the chance to observe the fear she was putting in him. "You remember Kaleesa, Solvitis? That asari you raped and tortured to death? I'm sure you do; you were only too happy to tell me how she got you started on your path of brutalizing and murdering helpless women."  
  
Solvitis let out muffled cries against his gag, shaking his head and struggling helplessly against his bonds as Liara moved towards him.  
  
"Yes, I'm sure you remember. Still, I want to be absolutely positive that you don't forget her name," Liara said. Stepping up close to Solvitis, she raised the object in her hand to his neck: a gleaming scalpel. "Let's give you a reminder."  
  
As Solvitis screamed, Liara carefully dug the surgical implement into the soft flesh of his neck. "If you keep struggling," Liara helpfully advised, "I'm just going to have to start over somewhere else."  
  
After several minutes of slicing, she had finished carving "KALEESA" into Solvitis's skin. Once she had inspected her work and decided it was satisfactory, she grabbed some medigel and applied it to the fresh wounds. Couldn't have him bleed to death before she was finished. That wouldn't do at all.  
  
"She was the first... but there were so many afterward. More than I could have imagined," Liara reached to her omnitool and pulled up the list. Holding up the holographic display to allow Solvitis to see, she scrolled down the long list of names. "Some of these, the authorities don't even know about," Liara said. "But the Shadow Broker knew. Which means that... now _I_ know."  
  
As she kept the list scrolling on the omnitool with one hand, she held the scalpel up to Solvitis's face with the other. "So many more names for you to remember, Solvitis. I only hope you have enough places on your body for me to give you all of these reminders."  
  
Solvitis screamed around the gag, as the blade cut into his flesh again. Liara felt a shiver of pleasure run through her body. It frightened her a little, how much she was enjoying this.  
  
It didn't frighten her enough, however, for her to stop.


	27. A PET: That One Loose End

"This is a message to myself. As you're hearing this, you've probably just woken up on a bed in the medbay, without any idea what is going on. The first thing you need to understand is this: it is for the best."  
  
Anna Shepard sat on the end of her bed in the captain's cabin of the Normandy, deciding what to say next. It had been five days since they had left the Shadow Broker's ship, and in a few hours she and Miranda were going to be administered the memory-wiping drug.   
  
She had spent a long time before this, trying to figure how exactly to address "herself" in this recording. Finally, she had just hit the activation button and went off the top of her head.  
  
"Not sure how far back my memories are going to be wiped, so I'll start from the beginning," Shepard narrated into the recorder. "Shortly after we defeated the Collectors, you undertook a mission to help Liara. She had located the whereabouts of the Shadow Broker, and you, she, and Miranda landed on his ship and fought through his men, trying to rescue her friend. When you finally faced the Shadow Broker, it turned out that he was a yahg. Liara says she's going to upload information on his species into our databases, so if you're really curious, you can read more about them there. But suffice it to say, we did not defeat the Shadow Broker that time. Liara's friend was killed, and we were captured and held by the Shadow Broker for a month."  
  
Shepard took a deep breath. It was painful, dredging up these memories. But at the same time, there was a relief in knowing that, in a few hours' time they would be gone from her memory.  
  
Liara had been worried about Shepard undertaking this procedure, afraid of what could happen if Shepard's mind was tampered with. But there was one memory, more horrible than all the rest of them, that had made up Shepard's mind: the image of Liara, mind addled by the powerful vorcha pheromone, placing herself between Shepard's legs and eagerly fucking her with that strap-on.   
  
Shepard knew that, if she had to carry that memory with her for the rest of her life, she would never be able to look at Liara the same way again. Never be able to make love to her without remembering that moment. The thought of that, more than anything else, made her ready to let that image - and all the rest of the memories of this horrific experience - be purged from her mind.  
  
"Over that month, you and Miranda were given a mind-altering drug. This drug addled your mind, made you... do things you wouldn't normally do. The Shadow Broker's men committed horrible acts against you and Miranda, ones that it would be better for you to not know the details of. You were nearly lost to the sensations this drug caused in you."  
  
Shepard looked down at the floor, trying to find the words to express how she was feeling right now. Taking a deep breath, she finally spoke. "But Liara saved you. She stayed strong, even as she watched you be tortured and abused by these men. If it hadn't been for Liara, if she hadn't been there to help you hold on to the last shred of your sanity... I imagine you would have allowed yourself to surrender completely to the... the..."  
  
She squinted her eyes shut, feeling those sensations rise up again. As the drug was almost completely out of her system, they were much less intense than before, but they had not subsided completely. Fleeting visions of thick, throbbing cocks filling her every hole, dripping wet pussies ready for her eager tongue to taste. She fought the urge to put her hand between her legs and rub at her suddenly moist cunt. As she had many times over the past few days, she thought about Liara. Not her beautiful body and warm touch, although the urge was certainly there. But of her calming smile, her firm resolve in the face of everything that happened to them. The way she had strode into the Shadow Broker's office, determined to defeat the Shadow Broker or die trying.  
  
And soon enough, the urges faded. It was much easier to banish these images now. By the time the amnesic procedure was finished, Shepard imagined they would be completely gone.

Clearing her throat, Shepard resumed her recording. "In the end, Liara, along with one of the Broker's associates that she had convinced to help, defeated the Shadow Broker and freed you from captivity. And in his place, Liara became the new Shadow Broker. She has pledged to use the Broker's resources to help you defeat the Reapers."  
  
Shepard sat for a moment, thinking about what else she might want to add to the recording. "Now, I like to think I know myself pretty well. I've always been the curious type. And the next time you meet with Liara, the next time you meld, I imagine there will be a temptation for you to look at her memories of these events. Please, if you value your sanity at all, _don't_. The things that happened to you during this past month are nothing you need to see, ever again. If a day should come, however, when the Reapers are defeated and there are no more battles to fight... I've told Liara that then, and only then, she may tell me more about what happened during this month if I decide to ask. But please, just leave it at that. It's for the best that you forget."  
  
She turned off the recording, feeling that there was something more she should say, but not able to come up with it.   
  
It was a similar sensation to one she had been feeling ever since they had returned to the Normandy: this feeling that she was forgetting something. That there was a loose end that hadn't been tied up.  
  
Eventually, she chalked it up to her own sense of duty, to her team and to the galaxy at large. Even though it was certainly not her fault, part of her felt guilty about letting an entire month pass without any action being taken to help prepare the galaxy for the return of the Reapers. Who knows what they might have been able to accomplish in this month, if Shepard hadn't been a prisoner, and her team hadn't been devoting all their attention toward looking for her.  
  
That had to be it. Because try as she might, Shepard couldn't think of anything else that could have given her this strange feeling of... missing something.  
  
She heard a beeping sound; somebody was outside of her door. "Come in," she said, not sure who would be coming to visit now.  
  
"Shepard," Miranda said as she made her way into the room. "Got anything planned for the next few hours?"  
  
"Not really," Shepard said. "Just making a recording for myself for after. Want to make sure I'm not completely freaked out about missing a month of my memory. Suppose you've probably done something similar."  
  
Miranda blinked. "I... yes, of course," she said. "Anyway, I thought before it happened, you might want to join me in a drink," she pulled her hands from behind her back to reveal a glass bottle and two glasses. "Sort of a 'good riddance party' for our old memories. Interested?"  
  
"I don't know," Shepard said, as she stood up from the bed. "You sure that alcohol won't interfere with the amnesic drugs?"  
  
"Positive," Miranda said, sitting down on the couch and pouring out glasses for her and Shepard. "Come, sit and have a drink with me."  
  
Shrugging, Shepard walked over to the couch. It was strange, seeing Miranda this friendly and relaxed again. Ever since they had returned to the Normandy, she had kept to herself in her office. From what some of the crew had told Shepard, Miranda had only emerged from the safety of her personal space at night, to grab a bite to eat and walk around the decks of the ship. No doubt grappling with the terrible memories of their month of hellish captivity.  
  
Thinking about it, Miranda coming to her now did make sense. Like Shepard, she had to be feeling some relief at the knowledge that their memories of the Shadow Broker's ship would soon be going away within a matter of hours. There was a relaxed smile on Miranda's face, and she sipped at her drink with a casual air about her.  
  
"It'll be nice," Shepard thought to herself, as she sat down across from Miranda and picked up her own glass. "To be finally rid of this horrible experience and feel like a normal person again."   
  
She took a sip of the drink and almost choked it out in surprise. "That's strong stuff."

"Normally I prefer a nice white wine or champagne," Miranda said. "But I figured, if we're not going to remember it anyway, why not drink the strongest, foulest swill on the entire ship?"  
  
Shepard winced before taking another drink. "I don't know, I'm worried we might still be tasting this stuff even after we've lost our memories. You get this stuff from Zaeed?"  
  
"From Jack, actually," Miranda said, and then laughed as Shepard's eyes bugged out. "I know, it surprised me, as well. I guess somehow she found out about what happened to us on the Broker's ship. Would have expected her to gloat about it, be happy that I got 'brought down to her level' or something like that. But she just stopped by my office and left this bottle. Said something like, 'you look like you could use it.' Guess with everything she's been through, she feels like we've got something in common now."  
  
Shepard arched an eyebrow. "Well, much as I'd like to see you two get along, I wonder how she's going to feel about you getting those memories wiped in the end."  
  
Miranda paused to take another sip of her drink, before speaking again. "Shepard, there's something I need to tell you."  
  
The weight in Miranda's voice gave Shepard pause. "Miranda, if it's really important, why don't you wait until after we've had our memories removed?"  
  
"That's just it, Shepard," Miranda said. Putting her glass on the table, she sat up and turned to face the aquarium. "I've decided... I'm not getting the amnesic treatment."  
  
"You're not?" Shepard swallowed the last sip of her glass before asking. "You're sure about this?"  
  
Miranda nodded. "I'm positive."  
  
Putting her glass down on the table, Shepard wiped a hand across her brow. The strong liquor was making her feel a little sweaty. "Well, I guess it's up to you, Miranda. I can't imagine why you'd want to keep these horrible memories, but it's your decision."  
  
Turning a bit, her right side to Shepard as she crossed her arms under her chest, Miranda wetted her lips before speaking again. "Shepard, I want to ask you a question, and I want you to be honest with me."  
  
"Of course, Miranda," Shepard said, putting a hand to her forehead. Damn, it had been a long time since she'd had something to drink. Her head was starting to swim, even from just one glass of this rotgut.  
  
"All that time, being held in that ship... it wasn't all bad, was it?"  
  
Shepard stared at Miranda, not sure at first that she'd heard her properly. "What are you talking about?"  
  
"I mean, yes, we were being held against our will, being raped on a daily basis," Miranda spoke of the horrors of their captivity in a detached manner. "But there were times when... when it wasn't terrible."  
  
Shepard shook her head in disbelief, the strange feeling she was getting from the strong liquor increasing in intensity. "Miranda, you can't be serious. It was _all_ terrible, every minute of it."  
  
"I told you to be honest with me, Shepard," Miranda said, looking sideways at Shepard with a light smile. "Toward the end of our time there, when we had surrendered ourselves to it and let them do with us what they would... I saw it in your eyes. It felt good, didn't it?"  
  
"Because we were drugged, Miranda," Shepard said, a little louder than she intended. "Yes, it felt good, but..."  
  
"So you agree, it felt good," Miranda said. "And isn't that all that matters? Those nights when the guards would leave us alone, and we had nobody but each other to turn to... I've thought a lot about that time we spent together, Shepard. Dreamed about it. I guess you could say... I've fantasized about it. And how good it all felt. To touch you... to have you touch me... so good."  
  
"Miranda, stop," Shepard said. She tried to get to her feet, but for some reason lost her footing and fell back to the couch immediately. "I think you may have gotten the wrong idea here. The only reason I did those things was because I couldn't make myself stop. It was the drug, Miranda, nothing else. If you thought that I... had feelings for you, I'm sorry. But I love Liara, and nobody else."  
  
Miranda let out a long, sorrowful sigh. "I thought that might be the case," she said, turning back to the aquarium and facing away from Shepard. "So I decided... to do what was necessary."

"What are you..." Shepard started to say, but she felt herself lose her train of thought. Her head was swimming more now, her vision getting blurry in front of her.  
  
And that was when she felt them hit again. The urges. Not weak as they had been for the last day or so, but stronger than ever.  
  
Blinking her eyes, she struggled to bring her vision into focus. Her eyes locked on the bottle of liquor on the table.  
  
 _Loose end. Something I'm forgetting.  
  
"Will you fuck me, Shepard? It's been too long since I got to eat your pussy. Come on, let's fuck."  
  
"But Liara saved you. She stayed strong, even as she watched you be tortured and abused by these men."   
  
Something I've forgotten.  
  
"Aw, why later? Don't forget, you promised to fuck me."  
  
"If it hadn't been for Liara, if she hadn't been there to help you hold on to the last shred of your sanity... I imagine you would have allowed yourself to surrender completely to the... the..."_  
  
"Oh, God," Shepard moaned, breathing heavily as she felt her body start to heat up under her clothes. "Miranda... what have you done?"  
  
"I have to give the Shadow Broker one thing," Miranda said, turning to watch as Shepard moaned and squirmed. "He may have been a horrible beast, but he took very extensive notes. I was able to replicate his final formula for the drug even more easily than I could have imagined."  
  
Reaching forward, head swimming and body starting to drip with sweat, Shepard knocked over the bottle of drugged alcohol and let it spill out onto the floor.  
  
"Oops, clumsy!" Miranda said with a giggle. "Don't worry about it, though. I can make more of it. Lots more. Enough for both of us to stay nice and happy for as long as we could ever want."  
  
"Miranda, you're... insane..." Shepard gasped, as her finger gripped the zipper of her uniform to pull it down. Just a few inches, just to relieve this heat she was starting to feel. But it kept creeping lower... and lower...  
  
Miranda seemed to take this as a cue, and reached up to start pulling the zipper down on her own jumpsuit. "I'll tell you what's insane, Shepard: to deny ourselves pleasure for no good reason. You said it yourself: it felt good at the end there. This drug the Shadow Broker created isn't a bad thing, Shepard. It's a _gift_. Taking it lets us get past all of society's taboos and the inhibitions we've foolishly built up throughout our lives, and allows us to revel in the pure pleasures of the flesh."  
  
"No, no, no, no," Shepard closed her eyes and shook her head. But as soon as she closed her eyes, the visions returned again, stronger and more vivid than ever. She was back in her cell on the Shadow Broker's ship, the Broker's men surrounding her and Miranda. Using them, taking turns with all of their holes, sweating and grunting and thrusting and fucking and fucking and fucking and oh it feels so fucking good fuck me harder fuck me fuck me fuck me _fuck me fuck me fuck me_  
  
She opened her eyes, and Miranda had removed all of her clothing save for a pair of lacy black panties. Her tits were so fucking amazing, her nipples stiff and erect as she watched Shepard writhe and moan on the couch. "Would you like me to... give you a hand, Shepard?"  
  
 _Yes yes yes yes come over here and lick touch bite scratch spank anything anything just make me cum cum again and again i need to cum oh fuck i need to cum_  
  
"No," Shepard weakly protested, but Miranda came over all the same. By now, Shepard's uniform blouse was completely unzipped, and Miranda's fingers gripped the front fastener of Shepard's bra. It sprung open, and Shepard's breasts spilled forth. Miranda straddled Shepard's lap and began groping at Shepard's tits, fingers pinching and tugging at her rock hard nipples.  
  
"See?" Miranda softly said, as she rolled Shepard's nipples between her fingers. "Isn't this so much better? Doesn't it feel so good to give in? Surrender to your body's desires?"

"Yes," Shepard breathed. In her mind, she tried to picture Liara. Her resolve, the strength that had inspired Shepard to keep herself sane even when all hope seemed to be lost.  
  
But in her mind, Liara was no longer the strong, dependable rock that Shepard had come to rely on. Now, she was back in the shuttle bay, naked with that strap-on jutting from her hips again. Shepard wondered to herself why she had thought this was an unpleasant memory. Now, with her head a little bit clearer thanks to Miranda, she realized how fucking hot it was. Those amazing blue tits of hers bouncing with each hard thrust. Liara shoving that thick cock inside of her, fucking her until she came again and again.   
  
She could feel Miranda's hand sliding down inside her pants. Drifting under the waistband of her dripping wet panties and rubbing at her sensitive clit. Leaning forward, Shepard hefted one of Miranda's sizable tits in her hand, and wrapped her lips around Miranda's nipple. She greedily sucked and nibbled on the hard nub, and it thrilled her to hear the moan that she elicited from Miranda.  
  
"Wonderful, it's so wonderful," Shepard thought, deliriously overwhelmed with ecstasy. "How could I have ever thought about denying myself this? Everyone should be able to feel this good. Feel this free."  
  
And that gave her an idea. "I can make more of it," Miranda had said. "Lots more."  
  
Those visions of throbbing hard cocks and dripping pussies filled her mind again. Only they weren't anonymous body parts to fuck and be fucked with anymore. Now it was Jacob's cock. Kasumi's pussy. Thane's scaly green shaft, and Samara's delicious asari azure. Ash's tantalizingly moist cunt. And Garrus's thick blue cock, filling her just like it had before.  
  
She could have all of them. Let all of her friends indulge in the pleasures of the flesh that she and Miranda had been allowed to experience back on the Shadow Broker's ship. After all they had done for her, it was the least Shepard could do in return.  
  
The last thought she had, before she and Miranda fell into bed and continued their desperate fucking, was remembering a request the mess sergeant had made of her soon after she'd arrived on the Normandy.  
  
"Find some better ingredients for the food around here," Gardner had asked her, and Shepard had put it off for more pressing matters for a long time. But now, as Shepard ripped off Miranda's panties and buried her face in her heavenly cunt, Shepard decided that she had just the secret ingredient, to make the food on the Normandy an experience unlike any other.  
  
It was going to be so fucking amazing.


End file.
